US stocks fall after jobs report

NEW YORK: US stocks opened mixed on Wednesday, after falling more than two percent in Tuesday's brutal sell-off, following the release of a better-than-expected report on private-sector job creation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 13.25 points (0.11 percent) to 11,853.37 in the first half-hour of trading.

The broader S&P 500 gained 0.52 point (0.04 percent) to 1,254.57, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 4.30 points (0.16 percent) to 2,673.54.

All three major stock indices plunged on Tuesday amid worries about economic weakness in the United States and Europe.

The Dow has fallen for eight consecutive trading days, leading some traders to hope for a rebound on Wednesday.

Before markets opened, US payrolls firm ADP reported that a net 114,000 jobs were created by private, non-farm businesses in the United States in July, fewer than in June but above analysts' consensus forecast of 86,000.

The ADP report "provided a small measure of support" to the market but was not enough to overcome fears of wider economic weakness, said Patrick O'Hare, an analyst with Briefing.com.

"The equity market is apt to maintain a nervous pulse as it contemplates the situation in Europe and the general economic state of things that has weakened after the debt standoff in the US," he said.

Shares of US auto maker Ford fell 1.5 percent while GM shares dropped 0.9 percent in morning trading, a day after the companies reported modest growth in vehicles sales during July.

The level of car sales may be hard to sustain in the second half of 2011 if the US economy continues to be dogged by slow growth and high unemployment.

Google shares were up 0.60 percent. Technology experts said on Tuesday that its new social-networking site, Google+, was growing much faster than Facebook in its early days.

Bond prices, which surged in recent days amid the sell-off in stocks, stayed roughly flat.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury hovered at around 2.62 percent, unchanged from late Monday, while that on the 30-year bond slipped to 3.91 percent from 3.92 percent. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011