Stocks Lose Ground on Downbeat Data

The Economy

Initial weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 12,000 to 500,000 in the week ended Aug. 14. Economists had been expecting the level to drop to 475,000 from last week's initially reported claims of 484,000, according to Briefing.com.

The Conference Board said leading indicators inched 0.1% higher in July after slipping 0.3% in June. The growth was milder than the 0.2% uptick that economists had been expecting, according to Briefing.com.

"The indicators point to a slow expansion through the end of the year," said Ken Goldstein, economist at the Conference Board, in a statement. "The good news is that the data do not point to a recession."

Meanwhile, manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia region weakened significantly in August as the Philadelphia Fed's index fell to a negative 7.7 reading after July's positive level of 5.1. Expectations were for a positive reading of 7.5.

The Energy Information Administration said natural gas storage levels grew by 27 billion cubic feet in the week ended Aug. 13, which was lower the increase of 28 billion to 32 billion cubic feet that analysts polled by Platts had been expecting.

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