U.S. stocks open sharply lower amid global sell-off, oil slide

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower for a second straight day on Thursday, amid the global markets rout and a continued decline in oil prices.

Trading on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses stopped early on Thursday after shares tumbled 7 percent within the first 30 minutes of trading, triggering the circuit breaker mechanism.

Tokyo shares ended the trading Thursday sharply lower with the benchmark Nikkei stock index declining below the 18,000 line, as sentiment here was hit by weak performance in China's equity market and the yen's advance against the U.S. dollar.

Meanwhile, investors continued to focus on weak oil prices amid rising tensions in the Middle East, as crude prices had witnessed big swings recently and traded near multi-year lows.

Oil prices hit their lowest level in more than 11 years Wednesday as last week's U.S. crude output increased unexpectedly, which in turn dampened market sentiment.

On the economic front, in the week ending Jan. 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 277,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday.

Traders were looking to the key December employment data, the first jobs report since the U.S. Federal Reserve's mid-December decision to raise its interest rates.

According to the minutes released Wednesday from the Fed's December meeting, the central bank decided to raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade, though some officials expressed concerns about lingering low inflation and the stifling effects of a strong U.S. dollar and slow growth overseas on the U.S. economy.

Fed members expected economic conditions would evolve in a manner that would warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate, the minutes said.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 314.31 points, or 1.86 percent, to 16,592.20. The S&P 500 shed 35.52 points, or 1.78 percent, to 1,954.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index plummeted 105.94 points, or 2.19 percent, to 4,729.83. Endi