India, Aug. 21 -- Stocks have fluctuated over the course of the trading session on Thursday but largely maintained a negative bias. The major averages have moved to the downside in recent trading, with the S&P 500 moving lower for the fifth straight session.

Currently, the major averages are off their lows of the session but still in negative territory. The Dow is down 159.96 points or 0.4 percent at 44,778.35, the Nasdaq is down 64.25 points or 0.3 percent at 21,108.61 and the S&P 500 is down 21.41 points or 0.3 percent at 6,374.37.

The weakness on Wall Street may reflect lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's highly anticipated speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposi...