Nasdaq slips, S&P 500 subdued after soft job openings report
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Job openings stand at 7.67 mln in July
Nvidia drops after report of subpoena from US DoJ
Dollar Tree dives after cutting annual forecasts
Indexes: Dow up 0.23%, S&P 500 off 0.05%, Nasdaq down 0.41%
Updated at 10:14 a.m. ET/1414 GMT
By Johann M Cherian and Purvi Agarwal
Sept 4 (Reuters) -The Nasdaq slipped and the benchmark S&P 500 was flat on Wednesday after a soft job openings report fanned concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed job openings in the month of July stood at 7.673 million, lower than the 8.1 million that economists polled by Reuters were expecting.
The data comes ahead of the crucial August non-farm payrolls numbers due on Friday, which could sway bets on the size of the U.S. Federal Reserve's expected interest rate cut in September.
Markets now expect a 53% chance of a 25-basis point cut, according to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, down from more than 61% earlier in the day, while that of a 50 bps cut stands at 47%.
"(The report) will do little to allay lingering concerns over the health of the U.S. labor market," said Michael Brown, senior research strategist at Pepperstone.
In the previous session, Wall Street's main indexes had logged their biggest one-day loss since early August as investors dumped technology-related stocks in a dour start to September.
Since 1928, the benchmark S&P 500 has recorded losses of about 1.2% on average in the historically weak month for U.S. equities.
The risk-off mood was exacerbated by data in Tuesday that showed manufacturing activity shrank, nearly a month after signs of softening labor demand sparked a global market rout.
The Fed's survey, known as the "Beige Book", is also expected on Wednesday.
At 10:14 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 95.23 points, or 0.23%, to 41,032.16, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.01 points, or 0.05%, to 5,525.92, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 70.24 points, or 0.41%, to 17,066.06.
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors were up, led by utilities .SPLRCU which were up 1.2%.
A rise in financial stocks such as Goldman Sachs GS.N and Travelers TRV.N helped keep the blue-chip Dow above water.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX edged higher after notching its biggest one-day drop since the COVID-19 pandemic in the previous session.
Nvidia NVDA.O fell 0.8% after a report said the U.S. Department of Justice sent a subpoena to the AI chip firm as it deepens its probe into the company's antitrust practices.
Other growth stocks such as Apple AAPL.O slipped 2%, Amazon.com AMZN.O lost 1.2% and Microsoft MSFT.O fell 0.7%.
Zscaler ZS.O forecast fiscal 2025 revenue and profit below estimates, sending its shares down 17.2%, while Dollar Tree DLTR.O slumped 18.6% after the discount store operator trimmed its annual sales and profit forecasts.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.13-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 67 new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 24 new highs and 99 new lows.
September is the worst month for S&P 500 on average since 1928 https://tmsnrt.rs/3zea03d
Reporting by Johann M Cherian, Bansari Mayur Kamdar and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta
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