Dow Jones dips 29 points to 21,783
S&P 500 slides 5 points to 2,439
Adamas, Splunk and Urban Outfitters move higher in after-hours trading
The major benchmarks moved within a narrow band all day, eventually settling in the red.
In light trading, the Dow Jones average was down 29 at 21,783 and the S&P 500 was off 5 at 2,439.
After the bell, Adamas Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ADMS) shot up by almost a third after the US Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to the company's drug candidate, GOCOVRI, the first medication for the treatment of involuntary movement in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease.
The wonderfully named software firm Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) was also wanted in after-hours trading, as it posted a 32% year-on-year increase in total revenues in the second quarter. After stripping out one-off items, earnings per share were positive at eight cents.
The shares rose 8% to US$65.15.
Retailer Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) put on a late spurt, rising 7% to US$21.40 after-hours, as it increased the size of its stock repurchase program by 20 million shares.
In Canada, the S&P/TSX Composite index rose 13 points to close at 15,076.
Stocks open little changed
Investors were not sure which to jump at the outset with the Jackson Hole central bankers symposium set to kick off later today.
The Dow was virtually unchanged at 21,812 and the S&P 500 was less than a point lower at 2,443.
“The Jackson Hole Symposium starts today but financial markets will have to wait until tomorrow to get the key speeches by both ECB President Mario Draghi and Fed President Janet Yellen. There may be some interesting interviews at the fringes though to look out for,” suggested Danske Bank.
The first-time jobless claims for last week were a mixed bag. The number of claimants rose, but by less than expected. Initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 234,000.
“The US President took to social media earlier this week to claim his tenure at the White House has already created over one million jobs and, while figures may be debated, jobless claims look to be heading towards a multi-decade low,” said Dennis de Jong, managing director of forex trading platform operator UFX.
“However, despite the figures remaining under the 250k target, it seems today’s data will do little to shift the market’s bearish view of the dollar at present.
“Trump’s ‘government shut down’ claims earlier this week have done nothing to help investors buy the greenback, but continued improvement on the employment situation certainly won’t harm long term aspirations for US economy growth,” he added.
Meanwhile, sales of previously-owned homes declined to their lowest level in a year in July to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.44mln units, down 1.3% from June's downwards-revised figure.
Discount retailer Dollar Tree Inc (NASDAQ:DLTR) was trading 8.3% higher after earnings and like-for-like (LFL) sales in the second quarter came in higher than Wall Street had been expecting.
LFL sales rose 1% from a year earlier, which was ahead of the 0.6% gain expected by analysts.
Underlying earnings per share (EPS) of 99 cents was 12 cents above the consensus forecast on the Street.
Elsewhere in the retail sector, preppy clothier Abercrombie & Fitch Co (NYSE:ANF) was up 15% at US$11.06 after its second quarter loss was not as bad as feared.
The net loss widened to US$15.5 from US$131mln the year before, and LFL sales were down 1% year-on-year, but that did not stop the shares rising 14% to US$10.96, reducing the share price depreciation in the year-to-date to 20%.