Investing.com - Stocks started the day slightly lower Thursday as investors took some profits following a strong market performance in the previous session.
But solid direction may be hard to come by, with many on Wall Street already eyeing the exits ahead of the end-of-summer three-day weekend.
The Dow fell 55.56, or 0.21%, to 26,069.01, while the broader S&P 500 index lost 5.42, or 0.19%, to 2,908.62. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 9.27, or 0.11%, to 8,100.42.
The latest economic data did little to provide a path, as it simply confirmed the U.S. economy is on solid footing.
Consumer spending rose as expected in July, as did the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge: the core PCE price index.
And while the ever-present concerns about U.S. trade with Mexico, Canada and China persist, investors were mostly free to concentrate on individual issues.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) could be the second U.S. company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization, following Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), with a solid gain today. Amazon stock started 0.3% higher, while Apple rose 0.5%.
Elsewhere in tech, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) rose 0.4%, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) gained 0.4% and Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) lost 0.3%.
Campbell Soup (NYSE:CPB) was in focus, falling 2.35%, after the company announced it would sell its international businesses and Fresh refrigerated-foods unit. But it faces pressure from hedge fund investors to sell the whole company and a proxy battle could be in the cards.
Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR), off 7.5%, and Dollar General (NYSE:DG), down 1%, struggled after reporting quarterly results before the bell, underscoring the difficulties for discount stores in a stronger economic environment.
And in M&A, K2M Group (NASDAQ:KTWO) surged 26% as Stryker (NYSE:SYK) announced it would buy the company for $27.50 a share. Stryker shares fell 1%.
In Europe, stocks were lower. Germany’s DAX fell 77 points, or 0.61%, while in France the CAC 40 decreased 24.21 points, or 0.44%, and in London, the FTSE 100 was down 50 points, or 0.67%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 lost 26.5 points, or 0.77%, while Spain’s IBEX 35 slumped 114 points, or 1.2%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.24% to $1,208.60 a troy ounce, while crude oil futures increased 0.18% to $69.59 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.38% to 94.82.