Wall Street subdued after soft job openings report

By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal

(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes swung between marginal gains and losses on Wednesday following a soft job openings report and dovish comments from a Fed policymaker.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed job openings dropped to a 3-1/2-year low in July, suggesting the labor market was losing steam, but probably not enough for the Federal Reserve to consider a big interest rate cut this month.

The data comes ahead of the crucial August non-farm payrolls numbers due on Friday, which could sway bets on the size of the U.S. central bank’s expected rate cut.

There’s a fear that the economy is slowing down more than expected and any surprise to Friday’s payrolls data can cause the Fed to take a more aggressive stance than initially expected, Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments, said.

Markets now see a 55% chance of a 25-basis point interest rate cut, according to CME Group’s (NASDAQ:) FedWatch Tool, down from 61% earlier in the day, while that of a 50-bps cut stands at 45%.

Waiting until inflation has actually fallen back to the Fed’s 2% goal before reducing borrowing costs “would risk labor market disruptions that could inflict unnecessary pain and suffering,” Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said.

Wall Street’s main indexes showed signs of stabilizing on Wednesday. In the previous session, the indexes had logged their biggest one-day loss since early August as investors dumped technology-related stocks in a dour start to September.

Since 1928, the benchmark has recorded losses of about 1.2% on average in the historically weak month for U.S. equities.

The Fed’s “Beige Book” compendium of surveys and interviews is also expected on Wednesday.

At 11:47 a.m. the rose 85.67 points, or 0.21%, to 41,022.60, the S&P 500 gained 0.70 point, or 0.01%, to 5,529.63, and the lost 6.40 points, or 0.04%, to 17,129.90.

Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were higher, led by utilities stocks which rose 1%. Tech shares slipped 0.3%.

A rise in financial stocks such as Goldman Sachs and Travelers (NYSE:) helped keep the blue-chip Dow above water.

The recovered from its biggest one-day drop since the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous session and was up 0.4%.

Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:) rose 3% after it named former Nvidia (NASDAQ:) executive Keith Strier as its senior vice president of global AI markets.

Nvidia shed 0.3% after a report said the U.S. Department of Justice sent a subpoena to the AI chip firm as it deepens its probe into the company’s antitrust practices.

Other growth stocks such as Apple (NASDAQ:) slipped 1.8% and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) fell 1%.

Zscaler (NASDAQ:) forecast fiscal 2025 revenue and profit below estimates, sending its shares down 17.6%, while Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:) slumped 19% after the discount store operator trimmed its annual sales and profit forecasts.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.66-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 70 new 52-week highs and seven new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 33 new highs and 111 new lows.