The S&P 500 pulled back on Thursday as investors readied for a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the central bank's annual Jackson Hole conference.

The broad index slipped 0.89% to close at 5,570.64. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 177.71 points, or 0.43%, at 40,712.78. The Nasdaq Composite shed 1.67% to close at 17,619.35 as technology stocks felt the brunt of Thursday's declines.

Thursday marks a retreat following a largely positive period that had been deemed a recovery rally following the global market rout on Aug. 5. All three indexes had traded higher at one point in the session, with the S&P 500 within striking distance of its all-time intraday high set in July before reversing course.

Stocks felt downward pressure from rising bond yields and struggling tech names on Thursday. Notably, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed nearly 9 basis points to 3.863%. The information technology sector led the S&P 500 lower with a slide of more than 2%, underscoring the weakness among this group.

"The market was as flat as a pancake through almost the entire morning," said George Ball, chairman of Sanders Morris. "You've got a very thinly traded market that is, today, looking ahead with some trepidation to Labor Day and to what happens after Labor Day."

Thursday's action comes as market participants turn attention to Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, hoping for further insight into rate policy. Traders are unanimous in expecting a decrease in borrowing costs next month, per the CME Group's FedWatch Tool, but are divided over whether the reduction will be a quarter or half a percentage point.

That will follow minutes from the Fed's July gathering released Wednesday. They indicated that most participants at the central bank's meeting said it would "likely" be appropriate to lower the fed funds rate from the current range of 5.25% to 5.5% at the September meeting — if data continues to come in as expected.

With Thursday's drop, the Nasdaq sat slightly below flat on the week. The Dow and S&P 500 were still higher by 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively.

In corporate news, software company Snowflake dropped 14.7% as rising costs hit its operating margins. Despite this, the company beat quarterly expectations and slightly raised its full-year product revenue forecast. Urban Outfitters slid 9.6% after disappointing second-quarter same-store sales growth.

Clarification: The story has been updated to reflect that the Fed is expected to lower rates from a current range of 5.25% to 5.5%.