New | Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ take a tumble; US dollar ends April with worst month in 4 years

Stock markets worldwide posted a second straight session of losses on Thursday after more weak earnings reports, with all three major US indexes plunging more than 1 per cent.

The dollar fell on Thursday to close out April as the greenback’s worst month in four years, as measured against a basket of six major currencies.

The latest batch of lackluster corporate results weighed on shares on Wall Street on Thursday. Celgene led a fall in US biotech stocks, while shares of Harman International Industries fell 7 per cent after the maker of audio systems cut its 2015 profit forecast.

Apple was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes. The Wall Street Journal reported that supplies of the company’s Apple Watch were limited at the product’s rollout after a key component was found to be defective.

Technology stocks in Europe fell after Nokia reported a quarterly profit that was well below market forecasts, sending its stock tumbling. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares posted its biggest weekly drop and its first monthly decline of the year.

"People were expecting a slight miss in earnings as a result of the big move in the dollar, but not as dramatic as we saw today," Robert Francello, head trader at Apex Capital in San Francisco, said of US corporate results.