Stock market today: Wall Street hangs near its best level in 20 months following mixed economic data

abcnews.go.com:

Wall Street is hanging near its 20-month high after a mixed set of reports kept questions alive about whether the U.S. economy can pull off a perfect landing that kills high inflation and avoids a recession

NEW YORK — Wall Street is hanging near its 20-month high Tuesday after a mixed set of reports kept questions alive about whether the U.S. economy can pull off a perfect landing that kills high inflation and avoids a recession.

The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower in midday trading and potentially heading for its first back-to-back loss since October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 151 points, or 0.4%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% higher.

Stocks were down more sharply in Asia amid worries about the health of China's economy, the world’s second largest. On Wall Street, KeyCorp slumped 3.8% after it cut its forecast for income from fees and other non-interest income.

U.S. stocks and Treasury yields wavered after reports showed that employers advertised far fewer job openings at the end of October than expected, while growth for services businesses accelerated more last month than expected.

Hope has been rising on Wall Street recently that the U.S. economy is slowing from its recently hot pace by just the right amount. Too much strength in the economy would give inflation more fuel, but too little would mean a recession.

With inflation down from its peak two summers ago, Wall Street is hopeful the Federal Reserve may finally be done with its market-shaking hikes to interest rates and could soon turn to cutting rates. That could help the economy avoid a recession and give a boost to all kinds of investment prices.

Investors have been looking for a slowdown in the job market in particular.