Investing.com – Wall Street traded mixed and flat on Thursday after some upbeat data on the U.S. economy helped equities recover from early losses and as market participant’s looked ahead to Friday’s speech from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen.
At 15:58GMT, or 11:58AM ET, the Dow 30 slipped 6 points, or 0.03%, the S&P 500 inched up 1 point, or 0.04%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 6 points, or 0.11%.
The widely anticipated Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole on the topic “Designing Resilient Monetary Policy Frameworks for the Future" kicked off on Thursday with a reception and opening dinner.
So far, two Fed officials took the opportunity to hint at monetary policy in interviews conducted at the event by CNBC.
Unsurprisingly, Kansas City Fed president Ester George, who voted against the last Fed rate decision on her preference for a hike, insisted that the time was right to proceed with policy tightening.
In somewhat less hawkish remarks, Dallas Fed chief Robert Kaplan told CNBC that the case for a rate hike was “strengthening” and it could occur in the “not too distant future”.
Still, U.S. equities appeared to be in a holding pattern while waiting for Yellen’s speech titled “The Federal Reserve's Monetary Policy Toolkit” to be delivered on Friday at 14:00GMT, or 10:00AM ET.
Markets were anxious to see if the Fed chief would give hints on the timing of the next move forward in the normalization of U.S. monetary policy.
The dollar was flat lining against the other major currencies on Thursday, in a cautious stance ahead of the event, pulling off session lows after a couple of upbeat economic reports.
Durable goods orders staged a stunning recovery in July, bolstering optimism over the U.S. economy.
Jobless claims also painted a positive picture of the U.S. labor market as they unexpectedly declined for a third-week running to a five-week low.
On the downside, Markit reported that its preliminary services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August hit a six-month low after an unexpected decline.
In big moves on the earnings front, Guess? Inc (NYSE:GES) soared 23% after the clothing chain raised the lower end of its forecast.
Tiffany & Co (NYSE:TIF) jumped nearly 7% as the luxury jeweler managed to beat on the bottom line, though the 5.9% decline in revenue was larger than expected.
In negative territory, Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) tumbled more than 13% on worse-than-forecast earnings.
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) fell nearly 4% as the department store chain posted a quarterly loss amid a continued sales decline.
HP Inc (NYSE:HPQ) dropped more than 1% as weak printer demand caused the firm to forecast current quarter earnings that missed estimates.
Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK), Brocade Communications Systems Inc (NASDAQ:BRCD) or Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) were set to release numbers after the market close.
In oil markets, recovered on Thursday from the prior session’s sharp losses as investors bought on the dip in the hopes the major oil producers could reach an agreement to stabilize the market.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.43% to $46.97 by 16:01GMT, or 12:01ET, while Brent oil traded up 0.59% to $49.34.