U.S. Stocks Turning In Lackluster Performance Following Mixed Data

(RTTNews) - After moving to the downside early in the session, stocks have shown a lack of direction over the course of the trading day on Wednesday.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have spent the day bouncing back and forth across the unchanged line, although the narrower Dow has shown a more notable move to the upside.

Currently, the major averages are turning in a mixed performance. While the Nasdaq is down 39.39 points or 0.2 percent at 23,374.29, the S&P 500 is up 1.63 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 6,831.00 and the Dow is up 183.68 points or 0.4 percent at 47,658.14.

The choppy trading on Wall Street comes as traders digest a mixed batch of U.S. economic data ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

While payroll processor ADP released a report showing an unexpected decrease by private sector employment, the Institute for Supply Management released a report showing an unexpected increase by its reading on service sector activity.

ADP said private sector employment fell by 32,000 jobs in November after climbing by an upwardly revised 47,000 jobs in October.

Economists had expected private sector employment to inch up by 10,000 jobs compared to the addition of 42,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

Meanwhile, the ISM said its services PMI inched up to 52.6 in November after climbing to 52.4 in October, with a reading above 50 indicating growth. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 52.1.

With the unexpected increase, the services PMI reached its highest level since hitting 53.5 in February.

Following the mixed data, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is currently indicating an 89.0 percent chance the Fed will cut rates by another quarter point next week.

Sector News

Oil service stocks have moved sharply higher amid a rebound by the price of crude oil, driving the Philadelphia Oil Service Index up by 2.8 percent to a nearly ten-month intraday high.

Significant strength is also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent surge by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The index has reached its best intraday level in over a month.

Airline, steel and banking stocks are also seeing considerable strength, while computer hardware stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.1 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index slid by 0.5 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.3 percent.

The major European markets are also on opposite sides of the unchanged line. While the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.1 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both down by 0.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries are extending the modest upward move seen over the course of the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is 1.1 basis points at 4.075 percent.