According to final results at the close, the Dow Jones fell 0.26% to 32,726.82 points and the S&P 500 0.08% to 4,151.94 points while the Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, grabbed 0.41 % at 12,720.58 points.

Stocks swayed over a few disappointing earnings announcements and more statements from a Fed official.

"But it was a session without a big catalyst theme as bond yields slipped a bit," commented Scotiabank's Shaun Osborne.

These, rather volatile, stood at 2.68% instead of 2.70% the day before

"Caution was in order ahead of Friday's jobs report," added Schwab analysts.

Weekly jobless claims published before the market opened rose a little to 260,000 (+6,000) last week, perhaps a harbinger that the US job market is slowly shrinking, noted Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics.

For official employment figures in July, analysts expect Friday the announcement of 250,000 job creations against 372,000 in June and an unemployment rate stable at 3.6%.

The US Department of Commerce also announced a further sharper-than-expected reduction in the trade deficit in June.

Imports fell 0.3% on weaker demand from US consumers and businesses.

"Overall, the outlook for global growth is darkening: the strong dollar and weaker domestic demand will have implications for trade flows going forward," said Rubeela Farooqi, economist for HFE.

Following several recent statements from Fed officials, Loretta Mester of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Office said she sees fed funds rates going up to 4% (from between 2.25 % and 2.50% these days) and that a break in monetary tightening may only come in the second half of 2023.

Investors also paid attention to the sharp rate hike (half a percentage point) by the Bank of England (BoE).

But above all, the BoE warned, according to it, that the United Kingdom would enter a recession until the end of 2023.

In the commodities market, U.S. oil WTI fell back to pre-Ukraine invasion levels below $90, depressed by slumping demand for fuels last week in the States -United.

On the side, the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly dropped 2.56% to 305.79 dollars after having shown a decline of 4% in its quarterly turnover, handicapped by the evolution of exchange rates.

Travel booking site Booking moderated its decline to 0.98% after a strong second quarter but weaker outlook thereafter, signaling that room bookings for July had decelerated sharply.

Meta (Facebook) which announced its intention to launch a loan and to have, for the first time in its history, recourse to debt to develop, rose by 1.05% to 170.57 dollars but yielded 0 .18% in electronic trading after closing.

The title of the Coinbase cryptocurrency platform, in bad shape since May with the decline in cryptoassets, jumped 10.01% to 88.90 dollars thanks to the announcement of a partnership with the investment fund BlackRock.

Meal delivery company Doordash ended up 2.34% and jumped 12.16% after the close as the group posted better-than-expected second-quarter results.

© 2022 AFP