In the final session of the month and the first half of the year, US market indices were slightly lower on Wednesday. Investors were also anticipating a slew of economic reports, including one on private-sector employment, which was set to be released at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time. What are the results of stock benchmarks?
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00, -0.06% YMU21, -0.06% were down 60 points to 34,110, a 0.2 percent drop.
Futures on the S&amp
Futures on the Nasdaq-100 index NQ00 are up 0.01 percent.
NQU21, +0.01% was down 10 points, or less than 0.1 percent, at 14,553 points.
The S&P 500 SPX, +0.03 percent added 1.19 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 4,291.80 on Tuesday; the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.19 percent rose 27.83 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,528.33, its 19th record close of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.03% rose 9.02 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 34,292.29.
What is the market’s driving force? Stock markets appeared to be halting a rise that has driven equity indexes to all-time highs thanks to advances in technology and growth sectors. With benchmark bond yields maintaining in a range for several weeks, the latest surge has been spurred in part by easing fears about the pace of inflation as the economy recovers from the COVID outbreak. Investors are waiting for a monthly report on private-sector employment in the United States on Wednesday, which might set the tone for the Labor Department data on Friday. According to a consensus of expectations from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and MarketWatch, the United States created 550,000 private-sector jobs in June, following a 978,000 increase in May. The ADP data for May showed the biggest monthly improvement since June 2020, when the economy began to recover from the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak. On a month-to-month basis, however, the ADP data has not always been a strong predictor of the Labor Department’s larger employment report, despite the overall patterns of both data sets correlate over time. As investors strive to figure out how improvements in the job market can influence the Federal Reserve’s policy objectives, employment has become a prominent focus for markets. Late Tuesday, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller told Bloomberg TV that the “unemployment rate would have to drop fairly substantially, or inflation would have to really continue at a very high rate, before we would take seriously a rate hike in 2022,” but that he is not ruling it out, adding that it is appropriate to think about scaling back the Fed’s monthly purchases of $120 billion. Separately, investors will be watching the Chicago purchasing managers index for June, which is coming at 9:45 a.m., for a measure of manufacturing activity in the Chicago area. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index revealed that prices rose at their highest pace ever in April, as purchasers competed for a limited quantity of homes. A report on pending home sales, due at 10 a.m., will be in focus as well. The national home price index increased by 14.6 percent over the previous year, the greatest number in the more than 30 years of S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller statistics. In April, the independent 20-city index, which measures property prices in a set of key cities throughout the country, grew by 14.9 percent over the previous year, significantly above the 13.3 percent gain recorded the month before. Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic was planned to speak at 8 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, while Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin was scheduled to speak at 1 p.m., following the policymaker stated Tuesday that the U.S. labor market would unclog by the end of the summer. Which businesses are being scrutinized?
The initial public offering of Xometry Inc. XMTR, an AI-driven marketplace for on-demand manufacturing, was priced at $44 per share, above the intended price range of $38 to $42.
LegalZoom.com Inc. (LZ) priced its initial public offering at $28 per share on Wednesday, exceeding its intended price range of $24 to $27 per share.
Wow Internet, Cable, and Phone is a broadband provider.
WOW announced on Wednesday that it had signed two agreements to sell five service areas for $1.8 billion.
Torrid Holdings Inc. CURV, a direct-to-consumer plus-size women’s clothing retailer, increased its proposed initial public offering to 10 million shares priced at $18 to $21 each on Wednesday, up from an earlier intention of 8 million shares.
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