By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 struggled for direction Wednesday, as energy continued to rack up gains, but a stumble in materials and consumer stocks kept gains in check ahead of the jobs numbers due later this week.
The S&P 500 was up 0.02%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.06%, or 22 points, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.14%.
Energy jumped nearly 2%, underpinned by rising oil prices as investors bet on increasing demand over the summer offsetting major oil producer plans to gradually lift production.
Sentiment on oil prices has also been supported by growing expectations Iranian supply to market will be delayed because of talks over a nuclear deal.
"The return of Iranian barrels does not appear to be an imminent issue for the oil market with the fifth round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna failing to produce a major diplomatic breakthrough," RBC said in a note Tuesday.
Tech made modest gains as semiconductor and megacap tech stocks were mostly higher.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), were higher, while Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) were below the flatline.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose more than 3%, helping the broader iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) remain above the flatline.
Stay at home stocks were mixed as Zoom Video (NASDAQ:ZM) slipped despite reporting blow out quarterly results.
"Zoom reported another strong showing in 1QFY22 to start the year…," Oppenheimer said. "Looking ahead, our attention turns to the pace of G2K penetration, new product adoption, and churn for customers with fewer than ten employees."
Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON), and DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) were mixed.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE), meanwhile, fell nearly 1% despite beating first-quarter expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
Materials were in the red, keeping the broader market in check, paced by a decline in Nucor (NYSE:NUE), Packaging Corp of America (NYSE:PKG) and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX).
As the week progresses, investor attention will turn to the monthly jobs report for May due Friday. Economists forecast that 650,000 jobs were created in May.
Ahead of the jobs report, the Fed's beige book highlighted the ongoing labor supply shortage and faster pace of inflation, and suggested both trends are set to continue in the months ahead.
Reddit-favorite AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) added to gains from a day earlier, doubling in price intraday after launching a communication services, Investor Connect, to take advantage of its expanding retail shareholder base.
Other so-called meme stocks were also in the ascendency. GameStop (NYSE:GME) was up 12% and BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) was were up 31%.
The U.S.-China trade tensions, meanwhile, were in focus amid reports that President Biden is set to amend former president Trump's blacklist of China stocks to target strategic industries. In May, the Treasury Department delayed a ban on new U.S. investments in certain Chinese companies by two weeks to June 11 from May 27.