Investing.com – Wall Street followed European stock markets lower on Wednesday as investors stateside digested a slew of economic reports showing a mixed picture for the U.S. economy and U.S. crude struggled to maintain gains after weekly stockpiles hit yet another record high.
At 15:32GMT, or 11:32AM ET, the Dow Jones lost 112 points, or 0.633%, while the S&P 500 fell 16 points, or 0.77%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 42 points, or 0.88%.
U.S. non-farm private employment rose at the slowest pace in three years in April, dampening optimism over the health of the labor market, as market participants looked ahead to the official government numbers that will be released on Friday.
However, positive news came from the Institute of Supply Management (ISM)’s April non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index that showed the fastest expansion of services sector activity since December.
Similarly, new orders for U.S. factory goods rose more than expected in March, while shipments and inventories increased after eight straight months of declines, signs that the downturn in manufacturing was nearing an end.
Additionally, the U.S. trade deficit fell by more than expected in March, down to $40.4 billion which was the smallest since February 2015. This as imports fell to their lowest level since 2010.
Furthermore, nonfarm productivity registered its second quarterly decline in the first three months of the year, based mainly on the fact that unit labor costs rose at the quickest pace since the fourth quarter of 2014.
The balance of data helped the dollar to bounce back against a basket of six major currencies on Wednesday, after having hit its weakest level since January 2015 on Tuesday.
Traders will also be paying attention to a speech by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari later in the day to further judge the balance of opinion among policymakers on the prospect of further rate hikes.
In earnings news, Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ:PCLN) tumbled 10% after the world’s most profitable online travel services company forecast slower growth.
Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) soared over 20% after reporting better than expected quarterly earnings.
CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) shares rose more than 2% after the media company reported better-than-expected earnings after Tuesday’s closing bell.
Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) gained more than 3% after a revenue increase of 2.5% helped its bottom-line beat consensus.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) and 21st Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOX) will post numbers after Wall Street closes.
Outside of earnings, Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN) rose on a report that Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) approached the cancer drug maker about a possible takeover that would rival Sanofi’s $9.3 billion bid.
Oil prices had risen more than 2% in Wednesday’s session on news that Canadian wildfires in Alberta were affecting production and a Bloomberg report that two OPEC delegates said there was no need to talk of an output freeze at the June meeting because supply and demand fundamentals had changed.
However, U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly report dashed bullish sentiment after showing that crude oil inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels in the week ended April 29. Market analysts' expected a crude-stock rise of 1.7 million barrels.
U.S. crude futures still managed to maintain gains of 0.44% to $43.84 a barrel by 15:33GMT, or 11:33AM ET, but Brent oil slipped 0.11% to $44.92.