U.S. stocks finished a volatile trading session mostly lower Thursday, as jitters dominated sentiment ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech, with Wal-Mart Stores leading the Dow lower after the retailer's shares were cut to sell by Merrill Lynch.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to speak Friday at the central bank's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and said in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., that Fed policymakers are "prepared to act as needed" if the market's turmoil damages the economy. The Fed's next meeting is Sept. 18, but some on Wall Street expect the central bank could act sooner.

Analysts said that the investors are taking a little bit off the table after yesterday's run-up and that the stock market is still not healthy and suffering from low volume as well.

The Commerce Department said second-quarter gross domestic product grew 4.0 percent -- its fastest pace in more than a year, and well above the 0.6 percent increase in the first quarter. But the broadest measure of economic health came in slightly lower than many anticipated, and the report also suggested that business investment, not consumer spending, was the main driver of growth.

In a sign that Americans' spending power may keep declining, the Labor Department said U.S. jobless claims rose last week to the highest level since April. Employment has been one of the stronger pillars of the economy recently, enabling robust consumer spending.

The Dow fell 50.56, or 0.38%, to 13,238.73 after dropping about 100 points early in the session. Broader stock indicators finished mixed. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 6.12, or 0.42%, to 1,457.64, while the Nasdaq rose 2.14, or 0.08%, to 2,565.30.


Indian ADRs end lower; Patni, VSNL buck the trend rising 4%

Indian ADRs ended in the red, but Patni and VSNL bucked the trend rising more than 4%. In the technology pack, Infosys Technolgoies was down 1.19% at 46.44, Patni Computers was up 4.42% at 25.06, Satyam Computers was down 0.37% at 24.52, while Wipro ended the day 0.07% lower at 14.05.

In the non-technology pack, HDFC Bank was down 1.73% at 83.04, VSNL was up 4.44% at 19.29, ICICI Bank was down 2.55% at 41.30, MTNL was down 2.08% at 6.59, Tata Motors was down 0.3% at 16.38, Dr Reddy's Lab was down 0.57% at 15.60 and Sterlite was up 0.33% at 15.40.