Stocks May Move Modestly Lower In Early Trading - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - Stocks may move to the downside in early trading on Thursday after ending the previous session slightly higher. The major index futures are currently pointing to a modestly lower open for the markets, with the Dow futures down by 8 points.

The downward momentum for the markets comes as traders continue to digest the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest meeting, which suggested that officials were mixed about the outlook for monetary policy.

The minutes from the July meeting revealed that Fed officials generally agreed that it was prudent to accumulate more economic data before removing monetary accommodation.

However, the Fed said "some" members anticipated that economic conditions would soon warrant taking another step in removing policy accommodation.

Most economists still expect the Fed to leave interest rates unchanged at its next meeting in the latter part of September.

On the U.S. economic front, the Labor Department recently released a report showing a modest decrease in initial jobless claims in the week ended August 13th.

The report said initial jobless claims edged down to 262,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 266,000. Economists had expected jobless claims to dip to 265,000.

A separate report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed tenuous growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of August.

The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity climbed to a positive 2.0 in August from a negative 2.9 in July, with a positive reading indicating growth in regional manufacturing activity. The increase by the index matched economist estimates.

Shortly after the start of trading, the Conference Board is scheduled to release its report on leading economic indicators in the month of July.

Shares of Wal-Mart (WMT) are likely to be in focus on the day after the retail giant reported better than expected second quarter results and raised its full-year guidance.

Networking giant Cisco Systems (CSCO) also reported fourth quarter results that topped analyst estimates and announced plans to cut up to 5,500 jobs or 7 percent of its workforce.

After recovering from an early move to the downside, stocks finished Wednesday's trading session modestly higher. The slim gains on the day came on the heels of the pullback that was seen on Tuesday.

The major averages ended the day just above the unchanged line. The Dow edged up by 21.92 points or 0.1 percent to 18,573.94, the Nasdaq crept up by 1.55 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 5,228.66 and the S&P 500 rose by 4.07 points or 0.2 percent to 2,182.22.