US STOCKS-Wall Street muted as investors focus on retail earnings, Jackson Hole summit

By Johann M Cherian and Sanchayaita Roy

Aug 18 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were subdued on Monday, in a quiet start to a week packed with corporate earnings reports from major retailers and the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

Investors also remained wary ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Kyiv's conflict with Moscow, which comes days after Trump's summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin that yielded no concrete outcome.

Wall Street's main indexes rallied over the past two weeks, with the blue-chip Dow .DJI hitting an intra-day record high on Friday, aided by interest rate cut expectations and a better-than-expected earnings season despite an uncertain trade environment.

Investors will closely monitor reports from Walmart WMT.N, Home Depot HD.N and Target TGT.N among others, which are expected this week, to determine how trade uncertainty and inflation expectations have affected U.S. consumers.

Data on Friday showed that while retail sales were increasing broadly as anticipated, consumer sentiment overall had taken a hit from mounting inflation fears.

"In aggregate, you're going to see that the consumer is still spending despite saying that they're depressed," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital.

"Retail sales have continued to hold strong and we're going to see it reflected in the (retailers') earnings."

At 11:43 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 2.47 points, or 0.01%, to 44,948.59, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.64 points, or 0.09%, to 6,444.16 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 40.51 points, or 0.18%, to 21,582.97.

Six of the 11 S&P 500 sectors edged lower, with communication services .SPLRCL in the lead with a 0.9% fall, weighed by Facebook parent Meta's META.O 2.7% slide.

Investors continue to price in a 25-basis-point cut from the Federal Reserve next month, although they have lowered their expectations for another rate cut this year, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Recent data have also suggested that while U.S. tariffs have not filtered into headline consumer prices yet, weakness in the jobs market could nudge the central bank to take a more dovish stance.

Markets hope that the Fed's Jackson Hole, Wyoming conference between August 21 and 23, where Chair Jerome Powell is expected to speak, could offer more clarity on the economic outlook and the central bank's policy framework.

On the trade front, the Trump administration widened the reach of its 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports by adding hundreds of derivative products to the list of goods subject to the levies.

Dayforce DAY.N jumped 26.9% after a report said PE firm Thoma Bravo is in talks to acquire the HR management software firm.

Solar stocks such as SunRun RUN.O rose 6.7% and First Solar FSLR.O gained 9.2% after the U.S. Treasury Department unveiled new federal tax subsidy rules for solar and wind projects.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted eight new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 65 new highs and 56 new lows.