WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After moving to the downside early in the session, stocks have regained ground over the course of the trading day on Wednesday. The major averages have climbed well off their lows of the session, with the Dow bouncing back near the unchanged line.
Currently, the Nasdaq is down 116.57 points or 0.6 percent at 19,537.44, the S&P 500 is down 16.15 points or 0.3 percent at 6,021.73 and the Dow is down 3.79 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 44,552.25.
The initial pullback on Wall Street came amid weakness among tech stocks due to a negative reaction to earnings news from Alphabet (GOOGL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).
Shares of Alphabet are tumbling by 8.4 percent after the Google parent reported better than expected fourth quarter earnings but its cloud revenues missed estimates.
Chip maker AMD is also plunging by 8.9 percent after reporting fourth quarter earnings and revenues that beat estimates but its data center sales fell short of expectations.
Selling pressure has waned over the course of the session, however, as traders digest some mixed U.S. economic data.
The Institute for Supply Management released a report showing service sector growth in the U.S. unexpectedly slowed modestly in the month of January.
The ISM said its services PMI dipped to 52.8 in January from a revised 54.0 in December. While a reading above 50 still indicates growth, economists had expected the index to inch up to 54.3 from the 54.1 originally reported for the previous month.
Meanwhile, payroll processor ADP released a separate report showing private sector employment in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of January.
ADP said private sector employment climbed by 183,000 jobs in January after rising by an upwardly revised 176,000 jobs in December.
Economists had expected private sector employment to rise by 150,000 jobs compared to the addition of 122,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Sector News
Despite the weakness being shown by the broader markets, gold stocks have moved sharply higher on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.1 percent to a three-month intraday high.
The rally by gold stocks comes as the price of the precious metal continues to climb to record highs amid concerns about the escalating U.S.-China trade war.
Computer hardware stocks are also seeing considerable strength on the day, resulting in a 2.1 percent jump by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.
Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and housing stocks have also shown strong moves to the upside, while airline and retail stocks are seeing notable weakness.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region ended mixed on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Inched up by 0.1 percent and South Korea's Kospi jumped by 1.1 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.7 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 0.9 percent.
The major European markets are also turning in a mixed performance on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index is down by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index is up by 0.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.5 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have shown a strong move to the upside, extending the advance seen over the course of the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 8.9 basis points at 4.424 percent.
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