Stocks Close Lower in Rocky Session

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks finished lower after riding a roller coaster during Thursday's session as investors digested promising jobless claims data, a mix of earnings results, a tripped circuit breaker by Cisco(CSCO)and a Federal Reserve official's warning about deflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 31 points, or 0.3%, to close at 10,467. The S&P 500 was shed 5 points, or 0.4%, to finish at 1102 and the Nasdaq fell 13 points, or 0.6%, lower at 2252.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard warned that current monetary policies are putting the U.S. at risk for a deflationary period similar to Japan's. Bullard suggested that the central bank consider quantitative easing measures to encourage inflation.

Investors were also on edge after Cisco triggered a circuit breaker at 10:41 a.m., which halted the stock. Cisco shares finished the session down by 0.8%.

Although a better-than-expected decline in initial weekly jobless claims lifted stocks earlier in the session, the morning's mix of corporate results also weighed on the market.

"Across the board, the market has probably seen as much of the gains that it's going to," said Daniel Penrod, senior industry analyst for the California Credit Union League. "There will be some blips that cause movements, but unless someone comes out with something earth-shattering, the feeling is that the rest of the year will be mostly flat -- a lot of the same old, same old.

"We're at a time right now where most of the bad news has worked its way through. The problem is that no one is confident enough to start the growth. Wall Street is back -- you can see it where the Dow sits and in the other indices -- but on Main Street, they're still concerned and not confident enough to bet their dollars that we're out of this yet. Until they're willing to do that, it's going to feel like we're coasting."

Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng inched 0.01% higher, and Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.6%. The FTSE in London declined by 0.04%, and the DAX in Frankfurt lost 0.7%.

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