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Investing.com – The S&P 500 stumbled Thursday, as investor incentive to make big bets in either direction on stocks was subdued amid expectations the Fed’s Jackson Hole summit may shed some light on the central bank’s timeline to taper.
The S&P 500 fell 0.40%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4%, or 137 points, and the Nasdaq fell 0.32%.
Ahead of the symposium, data on the economy was mixed as jobless claims and economic growth were just shy of economists’ forecasts, while inflation was in line.
Initial jobless claims totaled 353,000 last week, just above expectations of 350,000, while the penultimate reading of second-quarter GDP was 6.6%, just shy of the 6.7% expected.
The weaker data out from the labor market, however, isn’t a reason for worry amid expectations that the trend of the falling claims is likely still intact.
“Although there was an uptick this week, we do not think there is anything to be particularly concerned about here,” Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) said in a note following the weekly jobless claims data. “The back up is not big enough to signify any fundamental change in the flows of the labor market.”
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index excluding food and energy, rose 6.10% in the second quarter, meeting forecasts.
The mixed data ahead of the meeting is unlikely to filter into the Fed’s thinking as some Wall Street believe it is too early for Powell to signal anything meaningful on monetary policy on Friday, as there is just one week until the August jobs report and a month to the Federal Open Market Committee meeting next month.
“[W]e do not expect Powell to use Jackson Hole to make any major (taper) announcements but if at all the next Fed meeting in September,” Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) said in a recent note.
On the earnings front, meanwhile, Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) was in the spotlight, rising more than 4% after delivering an upbeat outlook on annual performance following quarterly results that topped wall street estimates.
Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) gave up its gains to trade flat even as the cosmetics retailer reported a beat on both the top and bottom lines, led by a strong recovery in its beauty business.
Megacap tech stocks were largely below the flatline.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) were lower.
