US markets end mostly in red on Wednesday

05 Sep 2024 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly in red on Wednesday. following the sell-off seen during Tuesday’s session, markets showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line. Traders were cautious after the Labor Department also released a report showing a bigger than expected decrease by job openings in the U.S. in the month of July. The Labor Department said job openings edged to 7.67 million in July from a downwardly revised 7.91 million in June. Street had expected jobless claims to dip to 8.10 million from the 8.18 million originally reported for the previous month. The report said hires were little changed over the month at 5.5 million, while total separations increased to 5.4 million. 

Within separations, quits and layoffs and discharges were both little changed at 3.3 million and 1.8 million, respectively. On the sectoral front, Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster performance by the broader markets. However, energy stocks saw considerable weakness on the day, as the price of crude oil tumbled below $70 a barrel to its lowest levels in nine months. Reflecting the weakness in the energy sector, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index and the NYSE Arca Oil Index both slid by 1.5 percent. Gold, steel and computer hardware stocks also saw further downside, while telecom stocks moved sharply higher, driving the NYSE Arca North American Telecom Index up by 2.2 percent.

Nasdaq dropped 52 points or 0.3 percent to 17,084.3 and S&P 500 was down by 8.86 points or 0.16 percent to 5,520.07, Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38.04 points or 0.09 percent to 40,974.97.  


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