U.S. equities closed lower on Thursday, but well off their lows, as investors digested a massive global sell-off, falling oil prices, and chatter about a possible OPEC production cut.
The Dow Jones industrial average briefly fell 400 points in afternoon trading, as Boeing and Goldman Sachs weighed the most on the blue chips index.
However, the blue chips index bounced back sharply after Dow Jones cited comments from the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates on Sky News Arabia saying OPEC members were ready to cooperate on a production cut. Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazrouei also said low prices were already forcing non-OPEC members to cap production.
"We've heard this chatter enough times over the past month so take it with a grain of salt. Either way though, we've reached an extreme threshold of pain that this talk is even taking place," Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group, said in a note.
The blue chips index traded about 200 points lower after the report's release.
However, Adam Sarhan, CEO of Sarhan Capital, said he believes the bounce could be due to some technical buying, noting that the OPEC report came out at 2:31 p.m. ET, but stocks didn't hit session lows until about 2:36 p.m. ET.
"I think you're in a situation where the market is in deeply oversold levels. ... At some point, it's got to bounce," said Adam Sarhan, CEO of Sarhan Capital. "But make no mistake about it, the overall trend is down."
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