US stocks fell on Wednesday, putting Wall Street on track to recoup some of its strong gains of the past two sessions.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 265 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 1.1% and 1.3%, respectively.
Treasury yields rallied on Wednesday, weighing on stocks. The 10-year rate rose 10 basis points to 3.713% after briefly falling below 3.6% in the previous session.
Payroll services company ADP issued its employment report, which showed the addition of 208,000 jobs in September, which was better than expected by Dow Jones estimates. Traders are still awaiting Friday’s release of the non-farm payrolls report.
On Tuesday, the Dow jumped about 825 points, or 2.8%. The S&P 500 gained nearly 3.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 3.3%. Those gains, stemming from falling bond yields, led to the S&P 500’s strongest two-day stretch since 2020.
Meanwhile, a weakening of the latest job postings data had some investors wondering whether the Federal Reserve will slow the pace of interest rate hikes.
Market participants wondered if these signs could mean markets have finally bottomed out after the previous quarter’s sharp declines.
“I don’t think you have to worry about a recession until the second half of ’23,” Stifel chief equity strategist Barry Bannister said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “So there’s room for a rally as you go into early next year.”