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Stocks moved sharply lower at the start of trading on Thursday, extending the substantial downward move seen in the previous session. The major averages all slid firmly into negative territory, with the Dow dropping to its lowest intraday level in a month. In the past few minutes, the major averages have seen some further downside, hitting new lows for the young session. The Dow is down 356.46 points or 3.2 percent at 10,768.38, the Nasdaq is down 76.15 points or 3 percent at 2,462.04 and the S&P 500 is down 35.60 points or 3.1 percent at 1,131.16. The initial weakness on Wall Street reflects renewed concerns about the global economic outlook following Wednesday's troubling commentary from the Federal Reserve as well as some disappointing economic data. In its policy statement released yesterday, the Fed noted that economic growth remains slow and warned that there are significant downside risks to the economic outlook.

Stock Market Analysis Nasdaq 100 TQQQ vs SQQQ. Following a week of extreme volatility, trading calmed down Friday. The U.S. major averages ended the week with two positive sessions, the first back-to-back gains since the recent correction began. That helped minimize the weekly decline following Monday's plunge and Wednesday's extension lower. The S&P 500 lost 1.7% on the week, with nine of the 10 sectors declining. Financials (-5.0%) saw by far the largest decline after Bank of America (BAC) led U.S. banks lower on worries regarding its Countrywide segment and potential capital issues and European financials sold off aggressively on concerns regarding the banking systems in a number of countries, particularly France. Materials eked out a gain of 0.2%. The market's focus to begin the week was domestic after Standard & Poor's became the first agency to downgrade the sovereign credit rating of the United States. The downgrade over the weekend from AAA to AA+ on political risks and the country's rising debt burden caused U.S. equity markets to nosedive Monday. The S&P 500 lost 6.7%. The FOMC responded on Tuesday when it attached a time frame to its federal funds target for the first time, calling for exceptionally low levels at least through mid-2013. Treasury yields did not spike following the S&P downgrade, and then surged to record lows on Tuesday (10-year 2.03%) after the FOMC made monetary policy more accommodative for a longer-than-expected period.