Dow closes nearly 350 points lower as investors await September jobs report

U.S. stocks finished lower on Thursday for the second day in a row as Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari played down the odds of the Fed pausing its interest-rate hikes, while investors awaited an update on the state of the U.S. labor market due out Friday. The S&P 500 SPX, -1.02% finished down 38.76 points, or 1%, at 3,744.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.15% retreated 346.93 points, or 1.2%, to 29,926.94, while the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.68% fell 75.33 points, or 0.7%, to 11,073.31.