Wall Street Closes Mixed

Wall Street closed mixed Thursday as gains in tech stocks were balanced by worries about the Federal Reserve's possible rate hike in September.



The Dow Jones was down 16 points to end the day at 18,456 points. While the S&P 500 added 3 points to reach 2,170, the Nasdaq soared 15 points to 5,155.



Thanks to gains in tech stocks, the Nasdaq reached its highest closing level since last December.



The Fed added new wording to its July statement on Wednesday, stating "near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished." That was viewed by some analysts as a signal that the Fed could introduce a rate hike at its meeting in September, causing indecisiveness among investors and leaving the market in search for direction.



That didn't stop tech stocks from moving higher. After strong quarterly earnings, Facebook's shares rose as much as 4 percent during trading hours. While Twitter closed with 2.8 percent increase, Amazon had 1.5 percent rise in their stock values. -