U.S. shares retreated on Wednesday after two days of gains as traders mulled over jobs and trade data and yet another clutch of earnings reports, and amid comments from the Federal Reserve chief.
Friday sees the publication of the US non-farm job creation number - hotly anticipated as an indicator of when the Fed may raise interest rates.
The Central bank has already indicated that an announcement to that effect ( a rise) may come in December.
As a pre-cursor to that data, the ADP (Automatic Data Processing), published today, is always taken as a possible sign of things to come.
That showed that private sector employers added 182,000 jobs in October, while ADP also revised September's gain down slightly to 190,000 from a previous estimate of 200,000.
In terms of Friday, US economists expect the report to show that nonfarm payroll rose by a 177,000 jobs last month, from the gain of 142,000 in September.
Also on Wednesday, new stats showed that the US trade deficit plunged 15% in September especially driven by the influence of cheaper oil.
However, exports are 3.8% lower through the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year.
Michael Hewson, at CMC Markets, said earlier: "While digesting these reports markets will also have to digest the utterances of a number of Fed speakers, including Fed Chief Janet Yellen, as well as Fed doves Lael Brainard and William Dudley of the New York Fed.
"While Ms Yellen’s thoughts will be of particular interest markets will also be focusing on the view of Ms Brainard given how dovish she was in her previously reported comments, and whether she still believes that economic risks are “tilted to the downside”.
Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen testified before the House Financial Services Committee and hinted that a rate hike in December wouldn't derail the economy or the housing market.
At the close in New York, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial (INDEXDJX:.DJI) was down 0.3% at 17,868, while the Nasdaq (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) skidded 0.1% to 5,142 . The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) fell 0.4% to 2,102.
In the market, speculation resurfaced that Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was eyeing Blackberry (NASDAQ:BBRY) after shares in the latter rose more than a dollar in the last month.
In May, talk on the Street was of a possible US$7.5bn bid for Blackberry, with names in the frame including Microsoft, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo.
Microsoft is now rumoured to have bankers working on a possible offer for Blackberry, which it is said to want to beef up its own lacklustre mobile phone operation.
A market source said: "The only way Microsoft can compete with Apple is to buy a company like Blackberry that has all the technology patents and add it to its own business."
A spokesman for Microsoft told Proactive Investors: "Microsoft does not comment on rumour or speculation". Blackberry did not respond to a request for comment.
Elsewhere in company news, Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) was a big faller, shedding 29% after the online retailer posted disappointing third quarter figures yesterday.
Revenues dropped slightly to $713.6mln, compared to US$714.3mln during the same period last year.
Sodastream International (NASDAQ:SODA) was up and down in early deals as the drinks maker reported higher-than-expected profit, but a worse-than-expected sale drop in the third quarter.
Shares were last trading up 5.6%.
Electric car firm Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) added 11% in New York after its quarterly numbers impressed traders.
They showed demand for its products was growing and despite a one week shut down in production, the group made a record 13,091 vehicles in the three months and delivered a 11,603 new vehicles - ahead of expectations and also a new record.