NEW YORK, Aug. 6 (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 indexes closed lower on Thursday, pausing after a strong start to the week, as investors digested the latest round of corporate earnings and looked for signs of progress toward a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran.
A robust earnings season, which has tempered some concerns about the massive spending by AI-related companies, and growing optimism over the potential end of hostilities in the Iran war helped propel both the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 to record highs earlier this week.
Oil prices rose, with U.S. crude CLc1 settling up 2.75% at $77.29 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 settling at $82.49 per barrel, up 3.83%. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that an Iranian parliamentary committee is reviewing a preliminary bill that would bar U.S., Israeli and other "hostile" vessels from transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
"You're seeing perhaps more muted response to macro news than you would otherwise see, probably due to the fact of the summer and a little bit of fatigue, there's a little bit of headline fatigue, specifically around Iran," said Robert Bernstone, head of trading at SummitTX Capital in New York.
"Iran is having less of an impact right now, to be clear, I'm not saying it has no impact ... tweets are something, headlines are something, but we really want to see the devil is in the details."
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 13.56 points, or 0.18%, to end at 7,709.99 points, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 10.99 points, or 0.04%, to 26,352.45. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 453.64 points, or 0.83%, to 53,895.48.
The recent indications of movement toward a peace deal helped push crude prices lower earlier in the week and, in turn, eased inflation worries and expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve, which also served to push U.S. Treasury yields lower.
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