U.S. stocks ended weak on Wednesday after languishing in negative territory right through the day’s session.<\/p>\n
The major averages all ended with moderate losses despite coming off the day’s lows.<\/p>\n
The Dow, which dropped to 32,739.73 around mid morning, ended the session at 32,908.27 with a loss of 134.51 points or 0.41 percent. The S&P 500 settled with a loss of 25.69 points or 0.61 percent at 4,179.83, while the Nasdaq ended down 82.14 points or 0.63 percent at 12,935.29.<\/p>\n
The weakness in the market came as traders kept a close eye on developments regarding the bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avoid potentially disastrous default.<\/p>\n
The debt bill, which advanced out of the House Rules Committee on Tuesday, is set to be voted on in the House this evening.<\/p>\n
Data released by the Labor Department this morning showed
job openings rose to 10.1 million in April from a revised 9.7 million in March. Economists had expected job openings to decrease to 9.4 million.<\/p>\n
Continued strength in the labor market may raise concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of Friday’s closely watched monthly jobs report.<\/p>\n
3M, Home Depot, Travlers Companies and Goldman Sachs ended down 2 to 2.5 percent.<\/p>\n
NVIDIA Corporation shares declined nearly 6 percent. Caterpillar, JP Morgan, Chevron, Honeywell International, IBM and Cisco Systems also ended notably lower.<\/p>\n
Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares tumbled more than 6 percent after the company’s revenue fell short of expectations in the latest quarter due to pressure from weaker PC demand.<\/p>\n
Intel shares climbed nearly 7 percent. Verizon surged 2.1 percent and Walgreens Boots Alliance gained 1.6 percent.<\/p>\n
Merck, Amgen, Salesforce.com, United Health, Apple, Walmart and Boeing posted moderate gains.<\/p>\n