NEW YORK, New York - U,S. stocks were mixed on Thursday with technology shares doing best, while the Dow Jones and Standard and Poor's 500 lost ground.

U.S. President Donald Trump created jitters across markets when he floated the idea of delaying the November presidential election, and idea immediately dismissed by prominent Democrats and Republicans.

He did however during a press conference acknowledge the huge number of deaths caused by the coronavirus, which soared past 150,000 this week. He again however avoided any personal responsibility, saying the blame was China's.

"We can never ever forget the people whom we have lost," he said.

"We will never forget what happened."

"This could have been stopped in China, they should have stopped it and they didn't," said the president.

At the close of trading Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial was down 225.92 points, or 0.85%, at 26,313.65.

The Standard and Poor's 500 declined 12.22 points, or 0.38%, to 3,246.22.

The Nasdaq Composite advanced added 44.87 points, or 0.43%, to 10,587.81.

The U.S. dollar continued to be sold off. The euro another two-year high, closing out the New York session at 1.1842 Thursday.

The British pound soared above 1.3000 to 1.3091. The Japanese yen rose to 104.77. The Swiss franc strengthened to 0.9094.

The Canadian dollar went against the trend, easing to 1.3432. The Australian and New Zealand dollars however rallied to 0.7194 and 0.6694 respectively.

Stocks in Europe plummeted. The FTSE 100 in London was also under severe pressure. It closed down2.31% on Thursday. The Paris-based CAC 40 declined by 2.13%, but the worst performer was the German Dax which shed 3.45%.

On Asian markets , the Australian All Ordinaries rose 49.50 points or 0.81% to 6,177.50.

Elsewhere sellers were holding sway. In China, the Shanghai Composite dropped 7.73 points or 0.23% to 3,286.82. The blue-chip CSI300 index closed down 0.50% to 4,656.15

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 slipped 57.88 points or 0.26% to 22,339.23.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng declined 172.55 points or 0.69% to 24,710.59.

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