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STORY: U.S. stocks ended mixed on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq taking the biggest plunge after China's iPhone curbs pressured shares of Apple and its suppliers.

The Dow gained nearly two-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 fell three-tenths and the Nasdaq shed nine-tenths.

Shares of Apple lost nearly 3%, falling for a second straight day on the news that China had widened curbs on iPhone use by Chinese government officials.

While Will Rhind, CEO of GraniteShares ETFs, calls the move "concerning", he also sees it as a potential buying opportunity for investors.

"Apple is such a dominant company. It has such a fantastic product and an ecosystem that supports that, that potentially it's an opportunity for investors to look at something like Apple where shares are down and potentially buy the dip or get into Apple at a lower price."

Apple suppliers Qualcomm and Skyworks Solutions both tumbled more than 7%.

Data showing China's imports and exports fell in August also dented sentiment, with shares of U.S.-listed Chinese firms JD.com, Alibaba and Baidu all dropping.

And further pressuring stocks: unemployment claims last week hit their lowest level since February, according to the U.S. Labor Department, another sign of a still-tight labor market. That worried some investors that the Federal Reserve could continue its rate hikes.

In other company news, McDonald's shares rose 1% after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to "overweight."

And automation software firm UiPath rallied 11.5% on an upbeat annual revenue forecast.