Wall Street ends choppy session little changed

Major equity indexes in the U.S. fluctuated in relatively tight ranges and finished the day not too far away from their opening levels on Thursday.

After hitting yet another fresh record high during the first half of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average retraced its gains in the last hour as a new political development from the U.S. hurt the market sentiment. According to a recent article published by the Wall Street Journal, Robert Mueller, special counsel in charge of the Russia probe, has impaneled a grand jury in Washington, which is seen as a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase. The Dow Jones finished the day at 22,026.10, up 10 points.

On the other hand, Amazon and Apple shares slipped, weighing on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, which lost 22.30 points, or 0.35%, to close at 6,340.34. In the meantime, the S&P 500 dropped 1.5 points, or 0.05%, to 2,472.00.

Today's data from the U.S. came in mixed as two separate reports gave contradicting signals about the health of the service sector. "Earnings are supporting this market and consumers are supporting it from a macroeconomic standpoint, and this is a Goldilocks economy, good enough to push the market higher, no bubbles in sight," Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management. told Reuters.

Headlines from the U.S. session

• Special Counsel Mueller impanels Washington grand jury in Russia probe - WSJ
• Oil prices remain a key NOK driver - Nomura
• US OMB's Mulvaney: Proposal to increase tax rates on rich is ‘dead’ - CNBC
• US: Factory orders notched biggest gain in eight months - Wells Fargo
• Atlanta Fed: GDPNow model forecast for real GDP growth in Q3 is 4%
• Better wage data won’t change market view on Fed hikes - ING
• US: ISM Non-Manufacturing plummets in July - Wells Fargo
• US: Weekly initial claims was 240,000, a decrease of 5,000 from previous week
• US: Services Business Activity Index registered 54.7 in July, up from 54.2 in June - Markit
• US: Composite PMI Output Index rose to 54.6 in July, up from 53.9 in June
• US: Economic activity in non-manufacturing sector grew in July - ISM
• US: New orders for manufactured goods in June increased 3% to $481.1 bln