US open: Wall Street in holding pattern ahead of non-farm payrolls report
US stocks were expected to pause on Thursday after strong gains during the previous session, with investors cautious ahead of the all-important non-farm payrolls data due out the next day.
As of 1529 BST, the Dow Jones Industrials was drifting lower by 0.09% to 33,099.04, alongside a 0.37% drop for the S&P 500 to 4,248.15, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.6% at 13,152.47.
Stocks put in a decent performance on Wednesday on the back of weaker-than-expected ADP labour-market data and ISM non-manufacturing stats, causing US Treasury yields to pull back from their highest levels since 2007.
Come Thursday and the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down by one more basis point to 4.725%.
Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were down by 0.23% to $83.99 a barrel on the NYMEX.
The Labor Department reported just a 2,000 person increased in initial jobless claims for the week ending on 30 September to reach 207,000 (consensus: 210,000).
However, Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics was expecting claims to move higher over the next month or so in a lagged response to the rebound in WARN notices and layoff announcements during August.
Consensus was that the non-farm payrolls figures due out the next day would reveal a further slight slowdown in the pace of hiring to 168,000, alongside a 0.3% month-on-month rise in average hourly earnings.
Were the data to come in clearly stronger than expected then they could easily elicit a prompt reaction in government bond markets, some analysts believed.
Commerce reported a large 9.9% month-on-month decline in the foreign trade balance to $58.3bn in August (consensus: -$64.3bn).
Amazon and Microsoft shares were both trading lower after UK regulator Ofcom requested an antitrust probe from the Competition and Markets Authority over their dominance of the public cloud infrastructure services market.
Dow Jones - Risers
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $157.77 1.45%
Travelers Company Inc. (TRV) $164.62 1.30%
Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $103.27 1.08%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $514.84 0.83%
Visa Inc. (V) $232.79 0.68%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $163.90 0.53%
Boeing Co. (BA) $187.71 0.53%
Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (WBA) $22.33 0.20%
Walt Disney Co. (DIS) $79.46 0.17%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $256.13 0.13%
Dow Jones - Fallers
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $53.87 -2.13%
Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) $50.33 -1.53%
Salesforce.Com Inc. (CRM) $199.88 -0.99%
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) $262.46 -0.97%
Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) $52.97 -0.91%
3M Co. (MMM) $87.24 -0.89%
JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) $142.11 -0.87%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $316.62 -0.73%
American Express Co. (AXP) $145.77 -0.58%
Walmart Inc. (WMT) $160.15 -0.52%
S&P 500 - Risers
Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (LW) $99.25 9.69%
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $46.58 2.84%
Carnival Corp. (CCL) $13.44 2.71%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $69.41 1.91%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $67.20 1.86%
Cencora Inc (COR) $185.77 1.70%
Perrigo Company plc (PRGO) $30.67 1.69%
Chubb Corp. (CB) $210.88 1.55%
Eli Lilly and Company (LLY) $539.33 1.48%
Mosaic Company (MOS) $34.09 1.46%
S&P 500 - Fallers
Clorox Co. (CLX) $120.46 -8.62%
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $276.92 -5.07%
Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (BFH) $30.10 -3.96%
AES Corp. (AES) $12.72 -3.67%
NextEra Energy Inc. (NEE) $48.81 -3.57%
Kohls Corp. (KSS) $19.51 -3.56%
Molson Coors Beverage Co. Class B (TAP) $60.83 -3.49%
Resmed Inc. (RMD) $143.02 -3.37%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $60.41 -3.02%
Albemarle Corp. (ALB) $153.67 -2.99%
Nasdaq 100 - Risers
Western Digital Corp. (WDC) $46.58 2.84%
Micron Technology Inc. (MU) $69.41 1.91%
Seagate Technology Plc (STX) $67.20 1.86%
American Airlines Group (AAL) $12.88 1.18%
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (WYNN) $89.17 1.09%
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) $444.65 0.96%
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (REGN) $822.35 0.90%
Dollar Tree Inc (DLTR) $105.66 0.85%
Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) $91.86 0.78%
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) $133.76 0.70%
Nasdaq 100 - Fallers
Align Technology Inc. (ALGN) $276.92 -5.07%
Hasbro Inc (HAS) $60.41 -3.02%
Sirius XM Holdings Inc (SIRI) $4.34 -2.47%
Mondelez International Inc. (MDLZ) $67.01 -2.43%
Idexx Laboratories Inc. (IDXX) $423.08 -2.34%
Workday, Inc. (WDAY) $204.51 -2.32%
Qurate Retail Inc. (QRTEA) $0.50 -2.24%
DENTSPLY Sirona Inc. (XRAY) $32.59 -2.13%
Autodesk Inc. (ADSK) $203.19 -1.87%
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) $370.19 -1.78%