Wall Street’s major averages slipped on Wednesday as investors weighed a fresh round of retail earnings and now look ahead to the release of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes. Falling the hardest has been the tech focused Nasdaq Composite (COMP:IND) which has dropped 1.

Wall Street's main indexes closed roughly flat on Monday, after struggling for direction while investors awaited a raft of corporate earnings reports from major retailers for more signs about the state of the economy and the Federal Reserve's annual symposium in Jackson Hole.

This week's set-piece event is the Jackson Hole central-bank gathering in Wyoming, slated for Thursday through Saturday. Investors will tune into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech for any hints on whether the central bank might kick off interest-rate cuts in September.