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U.S. stocks slipped Thursday afternoon, giving up an early boost from a bullish Walmart earnings report, and data showing a jump in U.S. retail sales in July, which helped stocks bounce from the worst one-day fall this year on Wednesday. Investors remain concerned that President Trump’s trade war with China is undermining global economic growth after China on Thursday threatened unspecified retaliation against Trump’s recent threat to impose more tariffs on its imports from September. Central banks around the world are concerned about weakening economic data from China and Europe and on Thursday European Central Bank board member, Ollie Rehn, said European Central Bank will roll out fresh stimulus measures[1] that should include “substantial and sufficient” bond purchases as well as cuts to the bank’s key interest rate. How are the benchmarks performing? The Dow Jones Industrial index
DJIA, +0.10%[2]
rose 71 points, or 0.3%, to 25,553, while the S&P 500 index
SPX, +0.01%[3]
added 9 points, or 0.3%, at 2,850. The Nasdaq Composite
COMP, -0.30%[4]
advanced 6 points to 7,779, or 0.1%. The major indexes were briefly negative Thursday morning, with the Dow down as many as 40.28 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 losing 5.77 points, or 0.2% and the Nasdaq down 29.79 points, or 0.4%. Stocks were slammed Wednesday after the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y, -4.00%[5]
briefly traded below the 2-year Treasury note yield
TMUBMUSD02Y, -5.15%[6],
marking an inversion of the yield curve. Such phenomena are viewed as an often reliable recession warning signal, albeit often with a lag of more than a year. The Dow on Wednesday fell 800.49 points, or 3.1%, to end at 25,479.42, its biggest one-day percentage decline since Dec. 4. The S&P 500 finished 85.72 points lower, down 2.9%, at 2,840.60, while the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 242.42 points to end at 7,773.94. Wednesday’s fall was the second-biggest one-day percentage decline for the S&P and Nasdaq of the year, trailing only the Aug. 5 decline. What’s driving the market? Apple
AAPL, -1.04%[7],
...