After closing little changed for two straight days, stocks moved sharply lower over the course of the trading session on Thursday. With the steep losses on the day, the major averages dropped to their lowest closing level in well over three months.
The major averages finished the day just off their lows of the session. The Dow plunged 739.42 points or 1.6 percent to 46,677.85, the Nasdaq tumbled 404.16 points or 1.8 percent to 22,311.98 and the S&P 500 slumped 103.18 points or 1.5 percent to 6,672.62.