The stock market closed lower Thursday but well off session lows.
The Nasdaq — which was down as much as 1.4% early on — fell 0.5%. The S&P 500 gave back 0.2% and the Dow Jones industrial average eased 0.1%.
The most heavily traded Dow component was Nike (NKE), which fell 3% in volume about 60% higher than average. The sports apparel company expects to cut about 2% of its global workforce as it reorganizes itself.
The Russell 2000 was off 0.7% at the closing bell. The small-cap benchmark traded in the bottom half of the day's price range even as other indexes closed in the upper part of their range.
Volume was lower than Wednesday's total, according to early figures. Losers led winners by 2-to-1 across the board.
Retail, energy and cyclical stocks were mainly weaker. Steel producers were last after Nucor (NUE) warned it will miss second-quarter earnings targets. It blamed heavy competition, pressure from steel imports and weaker nonresidential construction activity. Nucor shares stumbled nearly 8% to the lowest level since Nov. 9, when President Trump's election sparked a rally in materials and other stocks.
Mining, oil drilling, biotech, discount stores and plastics were in the bottom part of the day's performance table.
Albemarle (ALB) was one of the most troubled stocks Thursday, after shares tumbled below the 50-day moving average in heavy trading. It's the first time Albemarle has slid below the 50-day line since a breakout Nov. 30. The chemicals company is a leading producer of lithium, the mineral used to produce batteries for electric and hybrid cars and many other types of batteries.
Some defensive industry groups were up the most, including tobacco companies, soft drink bottlers and soap and cleaning products.
In the IBD 50, two Chinese companies had the largest losses. Social media company YY Inc. (YY) shed 4% and auto marketing website Autohome (ATHM) gave back 5%. Neither had much volume.
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