Wall Street Today: U.S. stock indices fell on Wednesday after lower-than-expected jobs data and a media report that President-elect Donald Trump was considering declaring a national economic emergency.
The ADP national employment report showed that the US added 122,000 private sector jobs in December 2024.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims declined from the previous week.
At 9:52 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 117.37 points, or 0.28 percent, to 42,410.99, the S&P 500 fell 6.27 points, or 0.11 percent, to 5,902.76 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 9.11 points, or 0.05 percent, to 19,480.57.
Early on, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.7 points, or 0.03 percent, to 42,542.1. The S&P 500 rose 1.6 points, or 0.03 percent, to 5,910.66, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 20.3 points, or 0.10 percent, to 19,469.365.
Among megacaps, Nvidia rose 1.8 percent, Meta Platform fell 0.7 percent, and Alphabet was flat.
Quantum-computing stocks like Rigetti Computing dropped 41.5 percent, IonQ dropped 36.5 percent and Quantum Computing dropped 40.6 percent after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said computers based on the emerging technology are 30 years away. I.
Advanced Micro Devices stock fell 3.8 per cent after brokerage HSBC downgraded the stock to “reduce” from “buy”.
Investors also weighed comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller at an event in Paris on Wednesday.
Waller said he still expects the central bank to ease rates further in 2025.
He also said he doesn’t expect tariffs under President-elect Donald Trump to have a “significant or persistent impact” on inflation.
In bond marketThe yield on the 2-year Treasury fell to 4.28 percent from 4.29 percent late Tuesday. The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose to 4.71 percent from 4.69 percent.
bullion
gold prices It gained momentum on Wednesday after weaker than expected private jobs data.
Spot gold rose 0.5 percent at $2,663.79 an ounce by 9:55 a.m. ET (1455 GMT). US gold futures rose 0.5 percent to $2,679.70.
Spot silver rose 0.7 percent to $30.20 an ounce.
crude oil
Oil prices pared earlier gains on Wednesday as the US dollar strengthened.
Brent crude was up 21 cents, or 0.27 percent, at $77.26 a barrel at 1424 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 27 cents, or 0.36 percent, to $74.52.
