U.S. Stocks Close Weak As Investors Await Outcome Of Jackson Hole Symposium

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks closed weak on Thursday, retreating from record highs, as investors stayed quite wary of making significant moves as they looked ahead to comments from Fed officials at the annual Jackson Hole symposium on Friday.

The attack by suicide bombers near Kabul airport that resulted in the death of 12 US services members, and injuries to several others hurt sentiment.

Traders also reacted to President of the St. Louis Fed James Bullard's comments that he is of the view that the central bank should start tapering bond purchases in the fall and finish the process by the first quarter of next financial year. He has also called for a rate hike by end 2022.

Meanwhile, the Kansas City Federal Reserve President George said the Fed should start trimming its monthly bond purchases "sooner rather than later" even though the delta variant poses a risk to the US economic outlook.

Comments from Fed officials at the meeting may impact the outlook for monetary policy following recent indications the central bank plans to begin scaling back asset purchases this year.

The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is expected to provide cues on the central bank's tapering timeline.

Among the major averages, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq suffered their first losses in six sessions. The Dow ended down by 192.38 points or 0.54 percent at 35,213.12. The S&P 500 settled at 4,470.00 with a loss of 26.19 points or 0.58%, while the Nasdaq declined 96.05 points or 0.64 percent to settle at 14,945.81.

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits edged slightly higher in the week ended August 21st, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 353,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level of 349,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to tick up to 350,000 from the 348,000 originally reported for the previous week.

Meanwhile, a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis said the US economy advanced an annualized 6.6 percent on quarter in the second quarter, slightly higher than an earlier estimate of 6.5 percent. However, the increase was below the 6.7 percent increase analysts had forecast.

Among the prominent losers in the session, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Boeing both ended more than 2 percent down. Nike, Chevron, Caterpillar, Intel and Walmart shed 1 to 1.7 percent.

IBM, American Express, Microsoft, Home Depot and McDonalds also closed weak.

Shares of department store retailer Burlington Stores, Inc. plunged more than 9 percent despite the company turning to profit in the second quarter and beating market expectations.

Dollar General shares declined nearly 4 percent after the company reported a 13.8 percent drop in second-quarter earnings.

Salesforce.Com shares gained more than 2.5 percent, continuing to ride on strong quarterly results. Honeywell International climbed nearly 1.5 percent.

Other Markets

European markets closed lower on Thursday as investors stayed cautious and refrained from making significant moves, looking ahead to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's closing remarks at the Jackson Hole Symposium.

Uncertainty about U.S. monetary policy, and weak economic data from Germany weighed on sentiment. Among the major indices, the pan European Stoxx 600 declined 0.52%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.35% down, Germany's DAX slid 0.42% and France's CAC 40 lost 0.16%.

Asian stocks fell on Thursday as COVID-19 worries persisted and South Korea became one of the first major Asian economy to start exiting record-low borrowing costs.

Investors also awaited Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole gathering for clues on the timing of a tapering of monetary stimulus.

In bond markets, the long term 30-year Treasury yield dropped, while the rate of 10-Year Treasury Note was little changed near two-week highs.