US open: Stocks mixed as rally comes to a halt

Wall Street stocks were mixed at the open on Wednesday after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both had their best day since March in the previous session.

As of 1515 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.11% at 35,758.76, while the S&P 500 was 0.01% firmer at 4,687.23 and the Nasdaq Composite came out the gate 0.16% weaker at 15,661.42.

The Dow opened 39.24 points higher on Wednesday, modestly extending gains recorded in the previous session as fears regarding the Covid-19 omicron variant subsided.

The omicron variant was again in focus on Wednesday, with Pfizer and BioNTech stating preliminary reports indicated that their vaccine was effective in neutralising the strain and that two doses could possibly still protect recipients against sever disease.

On the macro front, US mortgage applications increased 2% in the seven days ended 3 December, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, a marked improvement when compared to the prior week's 7.2% decline.

Elsewhere, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' job openings and labour turnover survey revealed that the number of job openings increased to 11.0m on the last business day of October. Hires were little changed at 6.5m and total separations edged down to 5.9m. Within separations, the quits rate decreased to 2.8% following a series high in September.

In the corporate space, Campbell Soup missed on revenues and warned of increased second-quarter costs, while meme stock favourite GameStop will report earnings after the close.