Thursday's early afternoon trade: stocks slip ahead of Fed minutes; Apple weighs

US stocks fell on Thursday as investors await the minutes of the Federal Reserve's September meeting to get an insight into the central bank's decision to keep interest rates steady. Healthcare stocks fell again while a decline in tech stocks added to the pressure. Apple's 2.1 percent drop weighed the most on the three major indexes.
A six-day rally in global stocks was checked as weak trade from Germany and factory data out of Japan added to worries about slowing global growth, a key reason the Fed did not raise rates last month. "Markets are just showing fatigue ahead of what will probably be our best look into just how close the September FOMC decision was to keep interest rates on hold," said Ryan Larson, head of US equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.
"It's really going to show us as to what extent the Fed is worried about developments or any kind of slowdown in emerging markets, specifically China." The Fed minutes are due at 2:00 pm ET (1800 GMT). Data released on Thursday showed US jobless claims fell more than expected last week. That gave a more upbeat view of the health of the labor market than Friday's weak monthly report, which prompted speculation that the Fed would not raise rates this year.
At 12:48 am ET the Dow Jones industrial average was down 12.53 points, or 0.07 percent, at 16,899.76. The S&P 500 was down 5.38 points, or 0.27 percent, at 1,990.45 and the Nasdaq composite index was down 48.86 points, or 1.02 percent, at 4,742.30. Half of the 10 major S&P sectors were down, with the health index's 1.04 percent fall leading the decliners. Tech stocks were down 0.74 percent.