S & P 500, Nasdaq close lower for third day in a row

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The S & P 500 and the Nasdaq for the sake of a third session.

Technology stocks again weighed on the U.S. market while energy shares also fell on weak crude prices.

How did benchmarks fare?

The S & P 500 index

SPX, -0.37%

shed 10.55 points, gold 0.4%, to 2,878.05 and the Nasdaq Composite Index

COMP -0.91%

slid 72.45 points, or 0.9%, to 7,922.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average

DJIA, + 0.08%

20.88 points to 25.995.87.

The energy sector sank 1.9%, the weakest performer of the day, while tech lost 0.8%.

What drove the market?

Turmoil in Argentina and Turkey, their currencies continue to deteriorate confidence, is dragging on the global market.

Read: 4 reasons why big-name strategies are wrong about investing in emerging markets

On the trade front, the U.S. and Canada continued high-stakes negotiations in the effort to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement, which President Donald Trump said he was prepared to move forward with Canada's participation.

Those trade tensions come from an additional $ 200 trillion of Chinese goods. Reports indicated that Trump could impose the tariffs as soon as this week.

As in Wednesday's session, there was no obvious catalyst for the drop in tech, which has been the strongest-performing sector of the year by the far. The length and scale of the so-called momentum for the analyst has been overdone.

Among notable decliners, Apple Inc..

AAPL, -1.66%

fell 1.7%, Google-parent Alphabet Inc.

GOOGL, -1.26%

GOOG, -1.27%

dropped 1.3%, falling for a fifth session. Facebook Inc.

FB -2.78%

lost 2.8%, its fourth straight daily decline.

What were analysts saying?

A team led by Marko Kolanovic, Global Head of Quantitative Macro and Derivatives Strategy at JP Morgan, blamed the weakness in global markets to a "risk-off" mode with investors seeking to reduce their exposure to risky assets as stocks amid concerns about contagion from emerging markets and the impact of the stronger US dollar and higher interest rates.

"This is very much a tech-centric reversion. It's a long overdue, "said Peter Kenny, market strategist at Kenny & Co." This is bigger than FAANG, but the scale of that move is the primary driver of what we're seeing today and what we saw yesterday. I think there's still some downside ahead, and that's going to be a short-term fix, but something that will take a long time to work through. "

FAANG is an acronym that refers to a quintet of broad-capitalization technology and internet stocks – Facebook, Apple, Amazon.com Inc.

AMZN, -1.83%

Netflix Inc.

NFLX, + 1.55%

and Google-that have been sharply outperformed over the past several years.

What data were in focus?

In the latest readings on the labor market, the U.S. created 163,000 private-sector jobs in August, according to the ADP payrolls processor. This was below the 182,000 that had been expected, as well as from July's 217,000 reading. Separately, jobless claims fell to their lowest level since 1969.

The report is coming to the end of August, which is expected to show 200,000 jobs added last month.

In addition to the labor-market data, growth in U.S. productivity in the second quarter was unchanged at 2.9% after the government's latest update.

Two reads on the services painted a mixed picture. The Institute for Supply Management's August 58th, 2008, the final month of the month. Separately, 0.8% in July.

Solid economic data in a new window on the market and the market.

Read: Stock market has more than 10% by year-end, says famed bull

Which stocks were in focus?

G-III Apparel Group Ltd.

GIII + 4.52%

rose 4.5% after the owner of brands DKNY, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger among others, blew past earnings for its fiscal second quarter.

Twitter Inc.

tWTR, -5.87%

skidded 5.9% a day after Jack Dorsey Chief Executive testified on Capitol Hill on the subject of political interference.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc.

BCRX, -4.01%

fell 4% after it said it had won a $ 35 million, five-year contract from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for up to 50,000 doses of its antiviral flu therapy Rapivab.

Lands' End Inc.

THE, -12.18%

plunged 12.2% after retailer reported a second-quarter loss and declines in same-store sales.

Navistar International Corp.

NAV -8.47%

shares fell 8.5% after the company reported third-quarter results that beat expectations. It also reached its full-year revenue outlook.

Barnes & Noble Inc.

BKS -8.08%

sank 8.1% after it reported a first-quarter net loss last year, a fall in revenue, and a drop of 6.1% in its same-store sales.

How did other assets perform?

European stocks were mostly in the red and Asian markets closed after a tech selloff on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei

NIK -0.41%

fell 0.4%, the Shanghai Composite

SHCOMP, -0.47%

finished the session down 0.5%, while the Shenzhen Composite Index

399,106, -0.72%

closed off 0.7%.

The U.S. Dollar Index

DXY, -0.08%

remained soft, edging down 0.2% and October West Texas Intermediate crude

CLV8, + 0.16%

slid more than 1% on worries about slower global demand.

-Mark DeCambre contributed to this article

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