NEW YORK, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks slid on Thursday as a strengthening dollar lured investors from equity market and discouraging economic data dampened hope of economic recovery.
The dollar rose against high-yielding currencies and depressed commodity prices. Crude tumbled nearly 2 percent on New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper, gold, silver and nickel also retreated. Alcoa Inc. and ConocoPhillips led basic materials and energy producers lower.
Technology shares suffered a heavy sell-off after Bank of America downgraded the global chip industry to "negative" from "positive." Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. shares tumbled.
In economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said initial jobless claims were unchanged at 505,000 last week, but the figure remained at a level that does not signal increase in jobs. Meanwhile, the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators climbed for a seventh consecutive month, but less than economists had expected.
The Dow Jones fell 93.87, or 0.90 percent to 10,332.44. Broader indexes also went lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 14.90, or 1.34 percent, to 1,094.90 and the Nasdaq tumbled 36.23, or 1.66 percent to 2,156.82.
