NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Wednesday as fresh economic data indicated a cooling US economy, keeping alive hopes the Federal Reserve could pause rate hikes in September.
The ADP National Employment report showed private payrolls increased by 177,000 jobs in August, compared with estimates of 195,000, signaling a softening labor market.
Fresh gross domestic product (GDP) numbers showed the US economy expanded 2.1% in the second quarter, slower than a preliminary estimate of a 2.4% growth.
“We’re back to a spot now where bad news is something of good news,” said David Russell, global head of market strategy at TradeStation.
“The most recent data really shows that the economy is not overheating and it keeps this sort of Goldilocks hopes alive. It puts us back in the situation where we don’t have as much fear of additional rate hikes at this point in time.” Gains in Visa, up 0.9%, kept the cyclicals-heavy Dow Jones afloat, after a report said the company and rival Mastercard, up 1.3%, were preparing to raise credit-card fees.
Among other major movers of the day, HP Inc slid 7.9% as the personal computer maker trimmed its annual forecast due to slowing demand.
Traders’ bets on the Fed leaving interest rates unchanged in September stood at nearly 91%, up from 88.5% before the private payrolls and GDP data, while bets of a pause in November rose to 55% from about 52% a day earlier, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
US Treasury yields slipped to a near three-week low, with the 10-year yield last at 4.1%.
Shares of major growth stocks seesawed between gains and losses. Apple and Netflix added around 1.4% each, while Tesla lost 0.3%.
Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors rose, with information technology and energy leading gains, up 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.
Investors now await the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, and non-farm payroll numbers due on Thursday and Friday, respectively, for more clues on interest rates.
Trading activity has been light heading into the Labor Day holiday, with full-day volumes below the 20-day average for the past eight sessions. Volumes on Wednesday were at about 3.7 billion by midday.
At 11:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 62.61 points, or 0.18%, at 34,915.28, the S&P 500 was up 18.63 points, or 0.41%, at 4,516.26, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 80.95 points, or 0.58%, at 14,024.70.
Vaalco Energy slumped 17.8%, likely due to a military coup in Gabon, where the oil producer has operations.
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