Investing.com – Traders on Wall Street looked past positive data and opted to be cautious on Thursday as they looked ahead to Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Janet Yellen’s appearance the following day; while oil continued to struggle with the $50 psychological level.
At 15:34GMT or 11:34AM ET, the Dow 30 slipped 17 points, or 0.10%, while the S&P 500 edged down one point, or 0.03%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite inched up 1 points, or 0.03%.
Investors appeared to be anxious about Yellen’s first public appearance since the minutes from the last Fed meeting were published last week. With the hawkish tone in the document accompanied by a string of similar comments from other Fed officials, markets will look to see if she gives indications that the central bank might raise interest rates as early as next month, or July.
Fed fund futures were discounting a 30% probability of a hike in June and odds of 57% for the following month.
On Thursday, St. Louis Fed president James Bullard warned that labor market conditions were tight and could thus put upward pressure on inflation. The remarks were largely in line with speech given on Monday.
Markets will also pay close attention as Fed governor Jerome Powell speaks on the economy and monetary policy at 16:00GMT, or 12:00PM ET, in Washington DC.
On the economic front, durable goods orders jumped more than forecast in April, while core orders also narrowly beat consensus.
In other positive news, weekly initial jobless claims fell more than expected on Thursday.
Furthermore, pending home sales rose in April to their highest level in a decade, bolstering optimism over the strength of the U.S. housing market.
Also of note, the Atlanta Fed upped its forecast for second quarter gross domestic to 2.9% from the prior 2.5% based both on the durable goods data and Thursday’s advanced read of the trade balance.
Oil suffered choppy trade on Thursday. Though both West Texas and Brent broke through $50 intraday trade, neither barrel was able to hold above the psychological level.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.20% to $49.66 by 15:36 GMT, or 11:36AM ET, while Brent oil traded up 0.28% to $49.88.
In company news, Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) both gained on a report that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) may have interest in the media companies.
Discount retailers Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) and Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG) both soared after beating the Street with quarterly profits.
To the contrary, apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Company (NYSE:ANF) slumped more than 17% after reporting its 13th consecutive quarter of declining sales.
Department store chain Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:SHLD) jumped more than 2% announcing that it was exploring strategic options for some of its units.
GameStop or Splunk were among firms on tap to release after the market close.