Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 19, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Johann M Cherian and Sanchayaita Roy

(Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes were set for a lower open on Thursday, as investors turned cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's three-day conference in Jackson Hole, while big-box retailer Walmart's quarterly results did little to boost sentiment.

Walmart raised its fiscal year sales and profit, driven by strong demand from shoppers across all income levels. But its shares fell 2.5% in premarket trading.

The "results were actually pretty good across the board. I just think they're landing in a market that has taken on a risk off tone this week," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.

Reports from other retailers such as Target and Home Depot earlier this week painted a mixed picture, while technology stocks such as Nvidia, AMD, Palantir and Meta saw a sharp decline.

The selloff signaled investor fears that the equities, which have soared since April lows, are now overvalued, while Washington's growing interference in the sector has also raised alarms.

But according to the Stock Trader's Almanac, the selloff could also be a result of investors paring back their stock exposure during a traditionally rocky period for equities.

"Although dip buyers have stepped in to stabilize the market, it's too early to rule out a further slump in mega-cap tech stocks," said Raffi Boyadjian, lead market analyst at brokerage XM.

In premarket trading, Advanced Micro Devices and Palantir were marginally up, while Meta lost 0.7% and Nvidia slipped 0.3%.

At 08:43 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 176 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 22.75 points, or 0.36% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 85.75 points, or 0.37%.

Boeing gained 1.7% after a report suggested that the plane maker was in talks to sell as many as 500 jets to China, while Coty slumped 19% after the beauty products maker forecast a drop in current-quarter sales on weak U.S. spending.

The spotlight this week is on the Fed's annual symposium, where Chair Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak on Friday at 10 a.m. ET. Traders are looking for any commentary from Powell that would signal an interest rate cut in September following recent job market weakness.

A weekly report on Thursday showed that the number of jobless claims rose by the most in about three months last week.

The minutes from the central bank's July meeting indicate that policymakers had struck a cautious tone and plan to stick with it until they can fully gauge the impact of trade uncertainty on the economy.

The caution had traders paring odds of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut in September to 79% from 99.9% last week, according to data compiled by LSEG.

In trade developments, the U.S. and the European Union on Thursday finalized a framework deal they had reached last month.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Sanchayaita Roy; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)