Carla Mozée
Spencer Platt/Getty Images US stocks closed lower Wednesday following volatile swings in the final minutes of the trading session. The S&P 500 energy sector gained on the back of rising oil prices, after OPEC+ decided to cut production by 2 million barrels a day. ADP said jobs at private-sector employers increased by 208,000 in September. Loading Something is loading.
US stocks finished lower Wednesday following volatile swings in the final minutes of the trading session, retreating from a massive two-day rally to begin the week.
Stocks had sagged for much of the session, then darted into positive territory near the end of the day, only to reverse those short-lived gains by the close. The S&P 500’s energy sector rose with oil prices advancing after OPEC+ said it will cut production by 2 million barrels a day starting in November.
“The recent bounce can probably be chalked up to deeply oversold conditions plus a few positive items on the Fed ‘pivot’ narrative, including a large decrease in US job openings and the lower-than-expected rate hike in Australia,” Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategy Analyst, Baird Private Wealth Management, told Insider in emailed comments.
“However, the bar for a true Fed ‘pivot’ remains much higher, and there are still few signs that core inflation is easing enough for the Fed to get comfortable,” he said.
Here’s where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Wednesday:
S&P 500: 3,783.28, down 0.20%Dow Jones Industrial Average: 30,273.87, down 0.14% (42.45 points)Nasdaq Composite: 11,148.64, down 0.25% Early Wednesday, ADP’s private-sector jobs report showed employers in September increased payrolls by 208,000, slightly above an Econoday consensus estimate of 200,000. The report was the second under ADP’s new methodology and it arrived ahead of Friday’s September nonfarm report from the US government.
“We remain cautiously positioned, as we have for much of this year, with a smaller allocation than normal to stocks and larger allocation than normal to high-quality bonds and global infrastructure,” Bill Merz, head of capital markets research at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, told Insider.
“Investors have been looking for signs of a Fed pivot, but we view that as highly unlikely until inflation falls considerably. Unfortunately, measures like the Cleveland Fed’s trimmed mean CPI and the Atlanta Fed’s ‘sticky CPI’ (which tracks components of CPI that are slow to change) are still rising, indicating inflation could take some time to subside to the extent the Fed needs to see.”
Here’s what else is happening today:
Elon Musk will have to offload more Tesla shares to fund his takeover of Twitter, and that could lead to the electric vehicle maker’s stock falling further, said Wedbush’s Dan Ives.Carl Icahn has scored an estimated $250 million gain on Twitter stock by calling Musk’s bluff.Banks that lined up $12.5 billion in financing for Elon Musk’s Twitter deal reportedly face steep losses as appetite for riskier debt sours.The pound fell against the dollar, wiping out a brief rally as UK Prime Minister Liz Truss defended her tax cut plan.In commodities, bonds and crypto:
West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.3% to $87.72 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.7% to $93.40. Gold fell 0.2% to $1,726.60 per ounce.The 10-year Treasury yield rose 11 basis points to 3.75%.Bitcoin fell 0.7% to $20,197.04. Read next
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