US open: Stocks trade slightly lower following FOMC minutes, jobless claims data

Wall Street stocks traded slightly lower at the opening bell on Thursday as investors continued to digest minutes from the FOMC's latest meeting and this week's jobless claims figures from the Labor Department.

As of 1515 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.08% at 34,934.32, while the S&P 500 was 0.01% weaker at 4,399.89 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.05% softer at 14,519.37.

The Dow Jones opened 26.37 points lower on Thursday, narrowly extending heavy losses recorded in the previous session following the publication of the minutes from the Fed's latest policy meeting.

The FOMC minutes revealed that the majority of the US central bank's top policymakers judged that the Federal Reserve would be able to slow its bond purchases later in 2021.

According to the minutes of the 27-28 July meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, Fed officials thought they were now firmly on track to meet their inflation goal, while progress had been made on achieving full employment.

Several rate-setters believed that tapering would likely be more appropriate in 2022, the minutes showed. However, a number of Fed officials also aired their doubts regarding the medium-term trend for both prices and jobs, pointing out the possibility that they could undershoot the central bank's goals.

Also weighing on sentiment, Goldman Sachs cut its economic growth forecast for the current quarter from 9% to 5.5%, citing higher-than-expected inflation for the remainder of the year, West Texas Intermediate slipped 2.44% to around $63.86 a barrel, while the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell more than three basis points to 1.24%.

On the macro front, jobless claims continued trending lower in the week ended 14 August, according to the Department of Labor, with the number of people filing unemployment claims for the first time falling by 29,000 to 348,000. Economists had pencilled-in a smaller decline to 365,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims also retreated, down 19,000 to 377,750, while secondary jobless claims dropped by 79,000 to 2.82m.

Elsewhere, manufacturing activity in the US mid-Atlantic region slowed in August as firms ran down their inventory levels, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's factory sector index, which slipped from a reading of 21.9 for July to 19.4 a month later. Consensus had been for a print of 24.2.

Lastly, the Conference Board's leading economic index increased by 0.9% in July to 116.0, following a 0.5% increase in June and a 1.2% increase in May.

In the corporate space, Robinhood shares were firmly in the red after posting its first earnings report as a listed company, while Nvidia shares were in the green after the chipmaker's quarterly earnings and revenue beat analysts' expectations on the back of strong graphic card sales.

On Thursday morning, US retailer Macy's posted second-quarter profits and revenues that topped expectations on the Street, with the group also moving to hike its outlook for 2021.