Stock market today: Wall Street holds steadier as oil prices pare their gains
U.S. stocks are drifting near their record levels
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are drifting Wednesday, and Treasury yields are rising following an encouraging update on the job market's strength.
The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged in afternoon trading, a day after sliding from its record on worries about a possible widening of the fighting in the Middle East. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.1%.
Oil prices rose again as the world waits to see how Israel will respond to Tuesday's missile attack from Iran, but they pared their gains as the morning progressed. After briefly topping $76 earlier, the price for a barrel of Brent crude was sitting at $73.91, up 0.5% from the day before.
While Israel is not a major producer of oil, Iran is, and a worry is that a broadening war could affect other neighboring countries that are also integral to the flow of crude.
In the bond market, Treasury yields rose after a report indicated hiring by U.S. employers outside the government may have been stronger last month than expected.
The report from ADP Research said private-sector employers accelerated their hiring to a pace of 143,000 in September. That could be an encouraging signal for the more comprehensive report on the U.S. job market that’s arriving on Friday from the U.S. government.
The dominant question hanging over Wall Street has been whether the job market will continue to hold up after the Federal Reserve earlier kept interest rates at a two-decade high in hopes of braking on the economy enough to stamp out high inflation.
Stocks are near their records in large part on the belief that the U.S. economy will indeed continue to grow,
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