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Stocks Stay In Tight Range; Will Friday's GDP Help Bulls?

Expected up but how much? The first take on Q4 GDP will be released Friday before the market open. (©zhu difeng - Fotolia/stock.adobe.com)

U.S. stocks indexes traded in a tight range Thursday afternoon, as the market awaited Friday's first take on second-quarter GDP.

The Nasdaq inched up 0.2%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.1% and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.1%. Boeing's (BA) 2% drop dragged on the Dow industrials.

Volume in the stock market today was running lower on both major exchanges. The market could be looking past Thursday's situation to brace for Friday's GDP report. Wall Street's consensus estimate is for GDP growth of 2.6%. The range of estimates runs from 2.2% to 3.4%, according to Econoday.

GDP growth of 2.6% would be the highest since Q2 2015's 3.9% pop. The money-supply gauge of Divisia M4 including Treasuries has been 4% or higher for each of the past six months through June. This would imply faster economic growth. Divisia M4 is the broadest gauge of the money supply.

Apple (AAPL) continued to show grit Thursday as the stock battled near its 200-day moving average. On Wednesday, Apple gapped up on better-than-expected quarterly results to retake its 50-day line but bumped up against the 200-day line.

If Apple is to break its downtrend, which began in May 2015 and sank as much as 33%, then the stock must continue to post higher highs and higher lows. The most recent low on June 27 stopped at 91.50, above the May 12 low at 89.47.

As Apple climbs, the bulls would like to see the next dips hold above the previous low.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 2% to just above $41 a barrel in afternoon trade. Dow components Chevron (CVX) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) fell nearly 1% intraday. Both Chevron and Exxon report Q2 earnings Friday.

Gold rose 0.5%.