The US markets closed lower for a second day in a row on Wednesday, shedding modest early morning gains, after a rebound in crude oil prices fizzled out. Gloomy data pointing to decelerating growth in China and tepid improvement in the euro zone’s manufacturing sector, added to the market’s slump. The US Federal Reserve likely will pull the trigger and hike interest rates in December after taking a pass last week, according to a poll by Reuters who assigned a 60 percent probability of it happening. On the economy front, growth in the US manufacturing sector showed no month-over-month change during September, staying at August sluggish pace which was the weakest in almost two years. The preliminary US Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for September was 53. That was the same as August, which was its lowest since October 2013. Job creation also slowed in September, with the index at 51.4, its weakest since July 2014, down from a final August reading of 52.4. A strong dollar, flagging demand in many export markets and reduced capital spending by energy and other companies were all dragging on US manufacturing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 50.58 points or 0.31 percent to 16,279.89, the Nasdaq was down by 3.98 points or 0.08 percent to 4,752.74 while the S&P 500 dropped 3.98 points or 0.20 percent to 1,938.76.
The Indian ADRs ended mostly in red on Wednesday, Tata Motors was down 0.39%, Infosys was down 0.10% and Wipro was down by 0.02%. On the other hand, Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up by 0.66% and HDFC Bank was up 0.10%.