Nasdaq -1.68%, Market Falling to Holding Pattern Before Jackson Hole | Wall Street Today

Nine S&P 500 sectors were in decline Thursday, despite a market open that sent equities within striking distance of record highs.

Thursday, U.S. Initial Jobless claims showed that about 232k Americans were newly unemployed, around the forecast and the year average of 220k. Existing home sales came in at 3.95M for July, right around last month's 3.9M. S&P PMI came in slightly higher at 55.2 on Thursday.

Wednesday, FOMC meeting minutes from July showed most top Federal Reserve officials believed they should cut interest rates in September if inflation continued to slow and the labor market got any weaker.

"The majority overserved that, if the data continued to come in about as expected, it would likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting," the minutes of the Fed's July 30-31 meeting said. "Several" Fed officials even said they would have supported a rate cut at the July meeting.

Investors are digesting comments made during the Democratic National Committee. Wednesday night, Tim Walz accepted his VP nomination. So far, the Harris campaign has made public their plans to combat price gouging, subsidize housing, and raise the corporate tax rate from 7% to 28%. President Barack Obama and Joe Biden made an appearance this week.

Investors are also awaiting Powell's speech in macroeconomics at Jackson Hole, Wy, this Friday at 10 am ET; catch it live on moomoo with our broadcast and commentary.

Oil futures ended higher on Thursday, and support was found a day after settling at their lowest since January. According to MarketWatch, prices recouped some of their recent losses, attributed to revised U.S. jobs data that stoked worries about the outlook for crude demand.

A "small correction was necessary to fix the excessive selling seen earlier in the week," Manish Raj, managing director at Velandera Energy Partners told MarketWatch. Oil prices had posted declines for four sessions in a row through Wednesday.