Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Thursday ahead of key US labour data and after the Bank of England became the latest central bank to tighten monetary supply due to inflation.

The BOE raised its key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75 percent, its biggest rate hike since 1995. The central bank also forecast a lengthy recession amid uncertainty over energy supply due to the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.

The move follows a series of similar steps by other central banks, including the Federal Reserve, which will be scrutinising Friday's official government jobs data for July.

Uncertainty about the Fed's plans at its September 21 meeting is keeping investors on guard.

"Wall Street has heard enough from the Fed to know that we are stuck in wait-and-see mode for the next 48 days," said Oanda's Edward Moya.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.3 percent at 32,726.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 4,151, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.4 percent to end the day at 12,720.

Among individual stocks, Warner Brothers Discovery climbed 4.6 percent after announcing it was shelving the movie adaptation of "Batgirl". The move appears to reflect a change in corporate strategy after the merger between Warner Bros and Discovery.

But Walmart slid 3.7 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that the giant retailer is cutting "hundreds" of corporate jobs in a restructuring after recently trimming its profit forecast as consumers shift buying patterns due to inflation. (AFP)