The market was also held back by the fear of a Chinese meltdown. It was the biggest decliner on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which ended the session down less than 0.1 percent.
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The U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.3 percent in the second quarter, a moderate bounce from the revised 0.6-percent increase in the first quarter but missing market expectations of 2. On Wednesday, the Dow and the S&P both rose 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.4 percent.
A television screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange…
FED MEETING: As expected, the Federal Reserve’s policymakers voted to keep interest rates unchanged at their near-zero levels.
Investor focus has returned to economic data after Wednesday’s U.S. Federal Reserve policy statement, in which the central bank didn’t give a clear signal on when it would raise interest rates. Most investors expect the Fed will raise rates in September or December.
“Yeah, the economy is improving, but they are not really saying that the economy is taking off here”, said analyst Tom di Galoma, head of rates trading at ED&F Man Capital.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) skidded 1.9 percent to $51.91 after the oil and gas explorer unveiled plans to further pare its spending for the year, as the company swung to a loss in its second quarter amid tumbling commodity. Likewise, recent gains in labor markets and rising wage pressures have caused others – St. Louis Fed President James Bullard – to suggest that the September meeting is “effectively a coin toss” for a rate hike. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.25 percent from 2.22 percent.
KEEPING SCORE: China’s Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.5 percent to 3,680.91 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.2 percent to 24,549.21.
“Ultimately, the market is going to respond well to that because it means that corporate earnings are going to start to reaccelerate as well”.
Northrop Grumman led defense companies higher after it posted a stronger-than-expected profit in the second quarter and raised its outlook for the year.
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Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), a consumer-goods company, slipped 4 percent to $77.39 after its fourth-quarter revenue slightly missed expectations. The company saw profits jump from a year ago, helped by stronger business overseas. The hotel operator earned an adjusted $0.82 per share for its latest quarter, $0.01 above estimates, but revenue came in slightly below forecasts. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 81 cents to close at $48.79 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, a benchmark for global oils used by many U.S. refineries, continued to fall, however. The dollar rose to 123.94 Japanese yen from 123.57 yen. The euro has emerged from the Greek crisis with a 1.9 percent drop in July, while the pound was the best performed among 16 major peers, declining 0.7 percent.
