Global Update: Market Sentiments Weak.

Wall Street retreats following steeper-than-expected drop in home sales; oil fluctuates, earnings down & Jobless claim up....

• Stocks skidded lower Thursday after a steeper-than-expected decline in sales of existing homes wiped away some of the market's optimism about upbeat earnings reports. The major indexes each lost more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which fell more than 125 points.

• Investors were also absorbing a mixture of earnings reports from names like Ford Motor Co., which reported a big loss, and Dow Chemical Co., which said higher costs for raw materials sent earnings down sharply. But drug makers Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Eli Lilly & Co. both reported higher earnings as the weak dollar boosted foreign sales, and Amazon.com Inc. turned in a solid report that beat expectations.

• Stocks rose sharply the past two sessions as the price of oil continued its decline. The price is now down more than $20 after just weeks ago hitting a record above $147 a barrel. Oil fluctuated Thursday. A barrel of light, sweet crude fell 1 cent to $124.43 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

• The government reported that the number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits bolted past 400,000 last week as companies trimmed their work forces to cope with a slowing economy. The Labor Department reported that these new applications rose by 34,000 to 406,000 for the week ending July 19. That matches the level seen in late March. The last time claims were higher was after the devastation of the Gulf Coast hurricanes in mid-September 2005. Then, they spiked to 425,000.