- US stocks climbed following Wednesday's cooler-than-expected ADP jobs report.
- Private-sector employers added 177,000 jobs this month, below last month's reading of 371,000.
US stocks climbed Wednesday and the S&P 500 extended its winning streak four days following cooler-than-expected job data.
Early Wednesday, ADP reported that private-sector employers added 177,000 jobs this month, less than the Dow Jones survey expectations of 200,000, and far below last month's revised reading of 371,000.
That could be a hint that the Labor Department's jobs report on Friday will also indicate a cooler labor market, though the two data sets often diverge.
Still, the ADP report added to hopes that the Federal Reserve can be less hawkish as it followed Tuesday's Job Openings and Labor Turnover reading, which showed there were 8.827 million job openings in July, the third straight monthly drop and the lowest mark in over two years.
Also on Wednesday, second-quarter economic growth was revised down to 2.1% from an earlier reading of 2.4%.
"The [ADP] report and this morning's downward revision to GDP imply that the inflation-ridden, red-hot services sector may finally be reaching supply and demand balance, a welcome development relieving market players of further monetary policy intensity at the moment," José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, wrote in a note Wednesday.
Here's where US indexes stood as the market closed 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday:
- S&P 500: 4,514.86, up 0.38%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,890.24, up 0.11% (37.57 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 14,019.31, up 0.54%
Here's what else is going on:
- Why China's yuan will never be able to dethrone the US dollar, according to TS Lombard.
- A big investor in a top luxury watch retailer dumped millions of shares after Rolex struck a deal to run its own stores.
- A former Kremlin minister said complete de-dollarization in Russia is "impossible and irrational."
- The housing market is so unattractive that investor purchases have tumbled 45%.
- Nvidia stock has another 125% upside, according to one Wall Street firm.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- Oil prices climbed, with West Texas Intermediate up 0.57% to $81.62 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, inched higher 0.42% to $85.85 a barrel.
- Gold edged higher 0.34% to $1,971.80 per ounce.
- The 10-year yield stayed flat at 4.12%.
- Bitcoin fell 2.35% to $27,242.