MARKET SNAPSHOT: Dow Erases All Of Wednesday's Gain As Stocks Slump

By Victor Reklaitis and Anora Mahmudova, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks tumbled Thursday, giving up all of the prior day's big jump, which was the largest one-day advance of the year.

The S&P 500 (SPX) was last down 33 points, or 1.7%, to 1,936. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) slid 286 points, or 1.7%, to 16,709 after briefly being down as much as 303 points. The blue-chip index rose 275 points on Wednesday, while the S&P jumped by 34 points.

The Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) was down 74 points, or 1.7%, at 4,395.

The blame for Thursday's slide went in part to disquieting comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, while others said stocks just got ahead of themselves with Wednesday's big rally.

Draghi said "Europe's problems are structural, not cyclical, and without reforms there can be no recovery. I think this is weighing a bit on the market," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. (Read more: Draghi doesn't take new steps http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/10/09/live-blog-and-video-of-draghi-and-fischer-discussing-europe/.)

Activist investor Carl Icahn also said on CNBC that a market correction is "definitely coming" and that he's hedging his stock bets by shorting the S&P 500.

"What we're seeing is profit-taking from yesterday's trading ,where we saw nearly 2% gains, and I think that was a bit overdone," explained Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari U.K. "We've seen massive rallies off those Fed minutes, which weren't exactly the most dovish thing we've ever heard, and there was no real change in policy."

All 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down with declines in Goldman Sachs (GS) , Visa (V) and Chevron (CVX) weighing heavily on the price-weighted index.

Government data showed the number of people applying for unemployment benefits was below 300,000 for the fourth week in a row.

Investors are hearing speeches from several Federal Reserve officials Thursday, a day after investors sent stocks soaring as minutes released from the central bank's September meeting appeared to quell any fears that interest rates might be raised sooner.

Fed watch: Six U.S. central bankers will be speaking Thursday, including Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and Gov. Daniel Tarullo, both voting members on the Fed's interest-rate-setting committee. Minutes from that committee's September meeting, released Wednesday, highlighted concerns among members over the medium-term impact of the stronger dollar and slower growth among some of the U.S.'s major trading partners.

Need to Know: A call to short chip makers in the face of a scary triple-top market.

Stocks to watch: PepsiCo Inc. shares (PEP) rose 0.5%, with the beverage and snack giant reporting third-quarter profit and sales results that beat expectations.

Alcoa Inc. shares (AA) fell 4.4% in regular trading after the aluminum producer's third-quarter earnings came in higher than Wall Street's estimate.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) suppliers have delayed plans to mass produce a larger-screen tablet to early next year, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Carl Icahn's promised letter to Apple arrived before the opening bell, as well; it was titled "Sale: Apple Shares at Half Price." Apple shares gained 0.6%.

Google Inc.'s (GOOG) tax deal in France is being challenged, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Shares fell 1.8%.

Other markets: In Asia, Japan's Nikkei Average fell as the yen strengthened against the greenback. Gold prices (GCZ4)surged, while oil futures (CLX4) dropped.

MarketWatch's Carla Mozee in London contributed to this article.

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires