Fear dominated financial markets for the second day in a row and indexes lost ground as the S&P 500 sinks to bear territory. 

The S&P 500 dropped 0.3% to3,913.19 and the Nasdaq Composite decreased 0.9% to 11,325.81. 

Crude oil declined 1% $108.43 a barrel and the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes decreased to 2.789%

The benchmark bond yields rose in seven of the last nine trading days and weekly jobless claims rose the third week in a row. 

Investors sold stocks and feared that inflation is finally showing up in corporate results and more pain is likely to follow as the Fed prepares aggressive rate hikes that may tip the economy into a recession.  

The twin fears of future faster rate hikes and sustained inflation have been playing out over the last eight weeks and reached a new height on Wednesday. 

The earnings miss from Walmart and Target and cautious outlook from Lowe's also fanned the negative sentiment today. 

Cisco declined 11% in the pre-market trading after the networking systems maker reported flat quarterly sales and guided revenues to decline in the current quarter. 

Kohl's dropped 7% after the general merchandise retailer reported a first quarter and comparable sales declined 5.2% and said earnings per share plunged 90% to 11 cents from $1.05 a year ago. 

U.S. weekly jobless claims in the week ending on May 18 came in at 281,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. 

The U.S. rout sparked a global market selloff and dragged indexes in Asia and Europe down between 1% and 2%. 

The DAX index in Frankfurt fell 1.8% to 13,750.99, the CAC-40 in Paris decreased 2.06% to 6,222.02, and the FTSE 100 index in London dropped 2.03% to 7,285.88. 

Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali gained 0.5% after the company reported a smaller-than-expected net profit and the insurer took losses in closing down its Russian operations. 

In the first quarter to March, the insurer reported a net profit of 727 million euros compared to 802 million euros a year ago. 

The current quarter earnings included a charge of 136 million euros on the account of Russian assets impairments. 

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index declined 1.9% to 26,402.82.

Tech and automakers led the decline in Tokyo and SoftBank Group fell 1.6% to 5,055.00 yen and Recruit Holdings Co fell 4.2% to 4,602.00 yen. 

Japan's trade deficit in April rose to 839.2 billion yen (about $7 billion) from the upwardly revised 414.1 billion in March. 

Imports were the largest since record keeping began in 1979. 

Japan recorded a monthly deficit for the ninth month in a row and swung from a surplus of 227 billion in April 2021. 

Core machine orders rose 7.6% in March to 869.5 billion yen, the Cabinet Office reported today. 

In Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index fell 2.5% to 20,120.68, the largest decline since May 6. Hang Seng Tech index fell 4% but the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4%, the only gainer in Asian markets. 

Ten Cents plunged 6.5% after the operator of Chinese super app WeChat  reported flat revenues in the first quarter and a 51% plunge in net income. 

In Sydney, the ASX 200 index fell 1.7% to 7,064.50 after retailers plunged. Wesfarmers dropped 8% to an 18-month low, Coles declined 5%, and furniture retailer Norman declined 5.5%.  

In Mumbai, the Sensex index declined 2.6% or 1,416.30 to 52,792.23 and the Nifty index fell 2.65% or 430.95 to 15,809.32. 

Tech stocks dropped between 5% and 7% following the decline in the U.S.