Wall St. subdued ahead of debate, inflation data

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes ended little changed on Thursday, ahead of the evening's presidential debate and a day before investors receive fresh inflation data.

The Dow and S&P 500 each ticked up about a tenth of a percent, while the Nasdaq gained three-tenths.

Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment strategist at Sanctuary Wealth, said the market was "on hold" until investors gained more insight from the presidential candidates.

"So the market is really looking for clarity on how to position from the presidential debate. Example: will there be more tariffs? Where would the tariffs be positioned? Is it going to affect technology companies? Is it going to affect EV cars? So the market is looking for some form of clarity on what are going to be the positions from a Trump and Biden."

Investors are also looking for more clarity on inflation, which will come from Friday's personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of prices. Further easing could prompt investors to bet on two interest rate cuts this year, despite the central bank so far signaling just one.

Investors' rate cut hopes were supported on Thursday by data that showed new orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods unexpectedly fell in May. Core durable goods orders also fell... another sign of a slowing economy.

Stocks on the move included Micron Technology, down more than 7%, after an in-line fourth-quarter revenue forecast disappointed investors hoping for more upside from the memory chipmaker's performance in the artificial intelligence boom.

Shares of Nvidia shed 1.9%, continuing their recent turbulent ride.

Walgreens Boots Alliance slumped more than 22% after cutting its 2024 profit forecast and announcing plans to close more underperforming U.S. stores.

And Levi Strauss tumbled nearly 15.5% after falling short of expectations for second-quarter revenue.