1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks end mildly lower after GDP report

U.S. stocks inched down after wavering in a tight range Thursday, as the country's economic growth in the third quarter came out weaker than expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 23.72 points, or 0.13 percent, to 17,755.80. The S&P 500 edged down 0.94 point, or 0.04 percent, to 2,089.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 21.42 points, or 0.42 percent, to 5,074.27.

U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the third quarter, down from the revised 3.9 percent increase in the second quarter and missing market expectations of 1.7 percent, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

On a year-on-year basis, the American economy increased 2 percent in the third quarter, which represents the slowest expansion since the first quarter of 2014.

"Slow growth with a huge slowdown in inventory building and solid growth in final sales is good news. Demand grew at a solid pace. But the seeds of a slowdown in Q4 are already planted in the form of slowing consumption and weakness in durable orders," chief economist at FTN Financial Chris Low said in a note.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits indicate that the U.S. job market remains solid. In the week ending Oct. 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 260,000, below market consensus of 265,000, said the U.S. Labor Department Thursday.

The four-week moving average was 259,250, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised average. This is the lowest level for this average since Dec. 15, 1973 when it was 256,750.

U.S. pending home sales cooled in September for the second straight month and to their second lowest index reading in 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors Thursday.

The Pending Home Sales Index declined 2.3 percent to 106.8 in September from a slightly downwardly revised 109.3 in August.

Meanwhile, investors were still sifting through the Federal Reserve's statement released Wednesday afternoon following its two-day policy meeting. The U.S. central bank left the federal funds rate unchanged, but signaled option to tighten policy rate at its next meeting in December.

On corporate news, shares of Time Warner Cable Inc. jumped 3.55 percent to 191.82 U.S. dollars apiece Wednesday after the company delivered quarterly earnings above market estimates but revenues short of forecast. Endit