US stocks took an early dive on Thursday as concerns over the eurozone prompted a broad retreat from risky assets and sent the main market indexes on pace to post technical corrections.

Worries mounted Thursday over Europe's will to address its debt woes as unions went on strike in Greece and investors fretted that new trading regulations in Germany could spread, sparking a broad retreat from many markets. In the US, stocks linked to commodities and smaller companies took the brunt of the selling.