NEW YORK, New York - A day after investors breathed a sigh of relief, sellers swarmed U.S. stock markets on Thursday, giving free haircuts to buyers who bore into the market on Wednesday.

At the end of the day, carnage was everywhere, with all the major indices bearing heavy losses. The U.S. dollar was also sold off sharply, particularly against the euro and British pound.

"The gloom is back, and it's even worse than ever," CNBC reported Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge as saying in a note to clients. "A slew of items are contributing to thursday's malaise, including the very hot German CPI, more hawkish remarks from the Fed and ECB (Mester doesn't even think policy is in restrictive territory yet), some horrendous earnings reports (KMX and RAD especially), the defiant tone of the Truss government when it comes to the disastrous UK fiscal plan, a drop in weekly U.S. claims back below 200K, among others."

"Sellers took a break on Wed, but they're back in force so far today, and there isn't a bull in sight trying to defend the tape," Crisafulli wrote.

Stocks did however trim losses towards the close. In the end, the Nasdaq Composite had lost a hefty 314.13 points or 2.84 percent to 10,737.51.

The Standard and Poor's 500 shed 78.57 points or 2.11 percent to 3,640.47.

The Dow Jones industrials fell 458.13 points or 1.54 percent to 29,225.61.

On foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar took a belting. The British pound was in demand, surging to 1.1063 by the New York close Thursday. The euro jumped to 0.9794. The Japanese yen was a fraction higher at 144.38. The Swiss franc edged up to 0.9777.

The Australian dollar was only slightly firmer at 0.6482. The Canadian dollar inched up to 1.3703. The New Zealand dollar gained slightly to 0.5709.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 rose 248.07 points, or 0.95 percent, to 26,422.05.

The Australian All Ordinaries advanced 100.80 points or 1.51 percent to 6,760.60.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 gained 80.47 points or 0.72 percent to 11,200.04.

South Korea's Kospi Composite rose 1.64 points or 0.08 percent to 2,170.93.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng, going against the trend, retreated 85.01 points or 0.49 percent to 17,165.87. China's Shanghai Composite too weakened, albeit by just 3.86 points or 0.13 percent, to 3,041.20.

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