All major US indices reported a steady decline on Thursday. Clearly, this is because of a number of factors, one of which is overvalued stocks in some market sectors.

Aside from that, the US labor market deteriorated again, showing an increase in initial jobless claims to 861,000, which is significantly higher than what economists had forecasted.

But despite the negative factors, most investors remain optimistic on the securities. They point to the imminent adoption of a new government stimulus that will support economic growth and corporate profits in the coming year.

Another positive signal was the steady pace of vaccination against the coronavirus. In addition, incidents in both global and the US have decreased very sharply.

Nevertheless, on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.4% and hit 31,493.34 points, while the S&P 500 dipped by 0.4% and reached 3913.97 points. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.7% and closed at 13,865.36 points.

This plunge in the stock market was led by tech giants such as Facebook and Zoom Video Communications, which lost more than 1%.

Stocks of Twilio, meanwhile, soared by 7.7%, after analysts increased their target value from $ 475 to $ 550.

Shares of GameStop fluctuated between gains and losses, but ended 11.0% lower than its previous value. It cost $ 40.69 at the end of the trading session.

Stocks of Walmart also fell by 6.5%, after the company released its Q4 financial report. Walmart officials also said they would increase the hourly wages of nearly 500,000 employees.

Shares of Palantir Technologies also dropped by 7.1%. Last week, the company reported a loss for the 4th quarter and predicted a drop in sales in the near future.

Stoxx Europe 600 also declined by 0.8%, as many European companies released weak financial results on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific stock markets closed in different directions. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.6%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index sank 1.6%. Japan's Nikkei 225, on the other hand, shed 0.2%.