U.S. markets fall amid continued volatility, mixed quarterly earnings reports

Jan. 27 (UPI) -- U.S. markets closed with losses as the weeklong streak of up and down trading continued on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 7.31 points, or 0.02%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.54%, and the Nasdaq Composite closed the day down 1.4% after all three major indexes posted gains earlier in th session.

For the week, the Dow is down 0.3%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.6% and the Nasdaq fell 3%.

The major indexes also remain down for the month of January, with the Nasdaq in correction territory, down more than 17% from its intraday high.

Thursday saw a slew of big-name quarterly earnings reports with shares of Tesla falling 11.55% despite its fourth-quarter earnings exceeding analysts' expectations. The electric vehicle maker said supply chain issues were likely to hinder new vehicle launches this year.

Online trading app Robinhood saw stock fall 6.45% ahead of reporting after the bell that it missed estimates amid weaker stock trading.

Apple stock fell 0.29% in regular trading but was up 3.32% after hours as the company reported earnings above $30 billion for the first time.

Markets on Thursday continued to process Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's comments that there was "quite a bit of room" to raise interest rates before it would negatively impact the labor market following the conclusion of the central bank's two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

"While offering some clarity on how the Fed would begin the process of removing policy accomodation, the outcomes of the meeting fell short in providing the needed guidance on the timing and magnitude of the shift in policy," Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, said in a note.

Investors did have some positive news to digest on Thursday as the U.S. Department of Labor reported that there were 260,000 initial jobless claims for the week ending Jan. 22, a decrease of 30,000 from the previous week.

Additionally, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy saw substantial growth in the final three months of 2021 increasing 6.9% for the final quarter and 5.7% for all of 2021.

"The Q4 GDP report qas a nice upside surprise in a string of recently underwhelming economic data points," Mike Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede, said in a note.