Early trade in New York: Wall Street flat

Wall Street was little changed in late morning trading on Thursday as investors focus on the latest batch of strong US economic data and digest China's reassurance that there was no basis for further depreciation of the yuan. US retail sales rebounded in July, while the trend of weekly jobless pointed to a tightening job market, increasing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates as early as September.
At 11:38 am ET (1538 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 10.76 points, or 0.06 percent, at 17,391.75. The S&P 500 was down 1.95 points, or 0.09 percent, at 2,084.1 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 4.64 points, or 0.09 percent, at 5,049.02. Seven of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower with the energy index's 0.98 percent fall leading the decliners as oil prices pared earlier gains. The S&P 500 index showed 16 new 52-week highs and five new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 28 new highs and 54 new lows.