NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks dipped early Wednesday as the market digested fresh employment data and awaited the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate decision.

Private companies added 106,000 jobs in January, below expectations, according to payroll firm ADP, which cautioned that the survey was taken during a period of bad weather that could have distorted the findings.

The numbers come ahead of Friday’s closely-watched government jobs report, adding to the Fed’s data set as it weighs its latest action to counter inflation.

US stocks rise as markets digest company earnings

Policymakers are widely expected to announce a 0.25 percentage point rate hike, slowing from a half-point increase in December and steeper hikes before that.

Hopes that the Fed will soon conclude its rate-hiking cycle helped fuel a stock market rally in January.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent at 33,925.60.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 percent to 4,068.70, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also declined 0.2 percent to 11,566.24.

Among individual companies, Snapchat parent Snap plunged 13.5 percent after it reported a loss in the final three months of last year on seemingly stalled revenue.