Wall Street was little changed on Wednesday as gains in energy stocks were offset by declines in utilities and materials. Crude prices recovered from earlier losses and were up more than 1 percent.
A report by payrolls processor ADP on Wednesday showed the US private sector added more jobs than expected in February, suggesting solid job growth despite market turmoil and worries about a slowing global economy.
The report serves as a precursor to the more comprehensive monthly jobs report by the US Labour Department on Friday.
"We're in a holding pattern until Friday, when we get the payrolls number," said Jeff Kravetz, regional investment director at US Bank Wealth Management in Phoenix, Arizona.
"There's still a lot of money out there that's looking for a home and if we continue to get good economic data, it is going to be positive for stock markets here," he said.
Stocks surged on Tuesday, driven partly by encouraging factory and construction data, helping the S&P 500 claw back most of its losses from the last two months.
The index, which had fallen as much as 10.5 percent, is now down 3.6 percent for the year.
At 11:10 am ET (1610 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 5.13 points, or 0.03 percent, at 16,870.21, the S&P 500 was up 1.4 points, or 0.07 percent, at 1,979.75 and the Nasdaq Composite index was up 1.47 points, or 0.03 percent, at 4,691.07.
Five of the 10 major S&P sectors were higher, led by the energy sector's 0.86 percent rise. Exxon gave the biggest boost.
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