NEW YORK — A free fall in commodities and an unexpected jump in unemployment claims put financial markets on edge Thursday, dragging the stock market lower.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 139.41 points, or 1.1 percent, to 12,584.17. The S&P 500 dropped 12.22, or 0.9 percent, to 1,335.10. The Nasdaq composite fell 13.51, or 0.5 percent, to 2,814.72.
Oil prices fell nearly $10, or 9 percent, to close below $100 a barrel for the first time since mid-March. Silver lost 8 percent to settle at $34.41; the metal, which already had its biggest one-day drop in three decades on Tuesday, is nearly $16 off its high of $50, reached last week. And gold fell 2.3 percent to $1,474.90 an ounce.
Commodities such as oil and cotton had risen by more than 25 percent over the past year. Others such as silver remain up nearly 100 percent over this time last year, despite Thursday’s decline.
Thursday’s pullback indicated that some speculators were locking in their gains and that other investors were protecting profits because of concerns that today’s jobs reports may be worse than originally thought, experts say. That could lead to weaker demand from consumers.
“Speculators are unwinding their positions to take a profit,” said Peter Fusaro, the chairman of Global Change Associates, an energy trading consultant in New York.
Energy companies fell, mimicking the price of oil. Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Schlumberger each lost more than 2 percent.
The drop in oil prices was a boost to companies such as Delta Air Lines, which gained 7 percent.
Stock indexes fell after the Labor Department said that first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose to 474,000 last week, the highest level in eight months. Forecasters didn’t see it coming. Economists had expected claims would drop to 410,000.
Government bonds rose, pushing long-term interest rates to their lowest levels this year.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank to 3.16 percent.
