Morning Report: US sharemarkets fell on Thursday

Investors turned cautious after explosions in Afghanistan with reports of US military and Afghan civilian casualties. Sentiment was also dampened by comments from three of the US Federal Reserve’s non-voting regional Presidents -Esther George, Robert Kaplan and James Bullard -urging the central bank to start tapering its asset purchase program. Shares of Salesforce.com rose by 2.7% after strong June quarter earnings. But shares of discount retailer Dollar Tree shed 12.1% as rising freight costs hit its profit forecasts. The Dow Jones index fell by 192 points or 0.5%. The S&P 500 index lost 0.6% and the Nasdaq index slid 96 points or 0.6%.