There was a headwind in Thursday's stock trading on Wall Street. The three leading indexes on the New York Stock Exchange closed all on minus.
S&P 500, which on Wednesday had its best trading day in five months, ended Thursday on minus 1.4 percent. The industrial-heavy Dow Jones closed on minus 1.2 percent and Nasdaq's composite index on minus 2.3 percent.
The development was contributed to by the American purchasing index for July, which landed at 46.8, which was lower than expected and lower than June's index of 48.5.
Semiconductor giant Nvidia was one of Wednesday's stock winners, but fell sharply on Thursday: minus 6.7 percent.
Meta, which owns, among other things, Facebook and Instagram, reported an unexpectedly strong interim report on Wednesday and on Thursday the stock had increased by 4.8 percent.
Apple and Amazon will both present interim reports after the New York Stock Exchange's closing.
At closing, Apple had fallen by 1.7 percent and Amazon by 1.6 percent.