Wall Street on the back foot amid mixed macro data from US

Major equity indexes in the U.S. started the day lower on Thursday as investors digest today's macroeconomic data releases. 

According to the data released by the US Department of Labor, weekly initial jobless claims, impacted negatively by hurricanes Harvey and Irma, increased to 272,000 for the week ending September 23 from 260,000. On the other hand, the third estimate of the second-quarter real GDP growth rose to 3.1% from 3% in the second estimate. The details of the Bureau of Economic Analysis' report showed that a higher private inventory investment and an acceleration in consumer spending were the primary reasons behind that revision.

As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 9 points, or 0.04%, at 22,331.69, the S&P 500 was losing 1 point, or 0.04%, at 2,503.75 and the Nasdaq Composite was at 6,442.94, dropping 10.3 points, or 0.15%.

Today's data from the U.S.

• US: Weekly initial claims was 272,000, an increase of 12,000 from previous week
• US: Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 3.1% in the second quarter of 2017
• US: International trade deficit was $62.9 bln in Aug, down $0.9 bln from $63.9 bln in July
• US: Wholesale inventories for Aug were estimated at $608.4 bln, up 1.0% from July 2017