The stock market recovered Thursday after an early downdraft, but it was still a defensive session as growth stocks continued to face selling pressure and utilities outperformed.
Stocks fell sharply early as Wall Street turned its attention from the Fed to China. Growth concerns resurfaced after the world's second largest economy reported a 10% drop in exports in September, the most since February.
After falling 1.3% intraday, the Nasdaq composite ended with a loss of 0.5%. The S&P 500 fell 0.3% and the Dow Jones industrial average gave up 0.2%. Preliminary data showed volume on the Nasdaq and NYSE coming in higher than Wednesday.
Growth stocks really didn't participate in the market comeback as about half the names in the IBD 50 lost 1% or more.
The bright spot was Ulta Beauty (ULTA). Shares soared 11% after the retailer offered up bullish earnings guidance. Acacia (ACIA) and GrubHub (GRUB) also outperformed.
IBD'S TAKE: Ulta has been able to fend off competition from Amazon.com so far. For a look at Amazon's struggle to overpower specialty beauty retailers, read: "Why Amazon Has Been Powerless Against Beauty Stores."
In economic news, weekly jobless claims fell to 246,000 last week, the lowest since 1973, according to the Labor Department.
A slew of economic reports will be out Friday, including the latest reading on wholesale prices, September retail sales data and the latest reading on consumer confidence from the University of Michigan.
Utilities, airlines and hospital stocks outperformed.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) reversed higher as Wall Street weighed its Q3 earnings report. Shares rose nearly 2%. Revenue missed forecasts, but earnings and a key metric exceeded expectations. Top gainers in the group included American Airlines (AAL), Gol Intelligent (GOL) and Alaska Air (ALK) with gains of 4%-5%.
November West Texas intermediate crude oil rose 26 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $50.44 a barrel. Early Thursday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that domestic crude supplies rose last week by 4.9 million barrels.
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