4:20pm: Dow falls for the second day in a row
The Dow closed Tuesday down 80 points, 0.2%, at 36,125, the Nasdaq Composite added 44 points, 0.3%, to 14,230 and the S&P 500 lost 3 points, less than 0.1%, to 4,567. The small-cap Russell 2000 declined 26 points, 1.4%, to 1,865.
Apple stock rose more than 2% to close with a market cap above $3 trillion for the first time since August.
Meanwhile, the DJIA closed lower for the second consecutive day.
"Today is just a little bit of an unwinding of the theme of November," said Rhys Williams, chief strategist at Spouting Rock, referencing the stock market's strong performance in 2023's penultimate month. "It's too soon to draw any conclusions that somehow the risk-on trade is over."
12:00pm: Stocks mixed as jobs market softens
Stocks were mixed after data showed the jobs market may be creaking in the face of rising interest rates.
At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 133.00 points, 0.4%, at 36,071.44, the S&P 500 was down 6.69 points, 0.2%, at 4,563.09 but the Nasdaq Composite was up 14.08 points, 0.1%, at 14,199.57.
The number of job openings decreased to 8.7 million on the last business day of October, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, from 9.4 million the month before..
This was well below expectations for a decrease to 9.3 million.
But therre was better news as the US service sector activity picked up slightly in November to record an 11th straight month of expansion, according to survey data published Tuesday.
The services index of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) for November was 52.7%, up from 51.8% in October.
The figure beat analysts' expectations, and was above the 50-point threshold marking growth in the sector.
Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics said the PMI figure was "consistent with an outright stagnation in GDP," while the renewed slump in job openings to 8.7 million in October, from 9.4 million, points to the labour market "taking another leg downwards."
9:40am: US stocks head lower ahead of economic data
US stocks opened lower on Tuesday as investors updates and the jobs market and service sectors and investors questioned whether the recent rally had gone too far.
Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Average was down 94.92 points, 0.3%, at 36,109.52, the S&P 500 was down 15.27 points, 0.3%, at 4,554.51 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 48.47 points, 0.3%, at 14,137.02.
Mark Haefele at UBS suggested markets may now be pricing in “too much good news on monetary policy,” and may not benefit from falling Treasury yields the same as it had in November.
His 4,700 year-end S&P 500 forecast spells a 2% rise for the broader index.
“After such a strong rally in November, we think the potential size of US stock gains ahead look more modest—we forecast the S&P will end next year at around 4,700,” Haefele wrote.
Wells Fargo fell 1.2% after cheif executive Charlie Scharf said that low staff turnover means the company will likely book a large severance expense in the fourth quarter.
“We’re looking at something like $750 million to a little less than a billion dollars of severance in the fourth quarter that we weren’t anticipating, just because we want to continue to focus on efficiency,” Scharf told investors during a Goldman Sachs conference, reported by CNBC.
7:00am: Wall Street called lower after Moody's cuts China outlook
US stocks are expected to open as markets continue to give back some of November’s stellar gains.
In pre-market trading, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3%, while those for the S&P 500 0.4% lower and contracts for the Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.6%.
Sentiment was knocked a decision from Moody’s to cut the Chinese credit outlook which raised concerns over the sustainability of the country’s fiscal pathway.
Joshua Mahoney at Scope Markets noted while they opted to leave the long-term credit rating for Chinese sovereign bonds at A1, the shift onto a ‘negative’ outlook highlights concerns that their current fiscal spending habits pose a risk to the economy.
“With China faced by a real estate crisis that undermines the recovery from a zero-covid world, this critical assessment of recent fiscal spending levels does raise concerns that any additional stimulus will be limited in nature,” he said.
Tuesday also sees the first of a number of economic releases on the US jobs markets starting with Jolts jobs vacancy figures which are expected to edge down to 9.3 million in October from 9.5 million in September.
Elsewhere, activity in the services sector is expected to have expanded for the 11th consecutive month in November.
The Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index is forecast to edge up to 52 in November from 51.8 in October, according to economists.