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Investing.com — U.S. stock markets opened mostly little lower again on Wednesday as a fresh slide in bonds again raised questions over assumptions as to companies’ future profitability.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rose some 5 basis points to 1.47% on nagging worries about heavy future supply, and concerns that a tightening of bank regulations will make it harder for the country’s banks to hold the bonds coming on to the market.
By 9:40 AM ET (1440 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 33 points, or 0.1%, at 31,424 points, but the broader S&P 500 was down 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.6%.
The mood also darkened a little after ADP’s private payroll survey for February showed a gain of only 117,000, some 60,000 short of forecasts. In mitigation, the previous month’s number was revised up by over 20,000, however. The figures have been a poor guide to the official Labor Department’s report on employment trends in recent months, but suggest that the labor market is still struggling to pick up momentum despite the lifting of Covid-19-related restrictions in many states in recent weeks. The official labor market report is due on Friday.
Rocket Companies (NYSE:RKT) stock, which has the subject of a retail-driven short squeeze on Tuesday, was suspended, limit down, at the open and traded over 15% lower after the circuit-breakers lifted.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) stock inched 0.6% lower after its Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit said it would end ad sales based on individual users’ browsing histories, a move that again indicates the pressure on tech platforms to rein in some of the aggressive techniques that have made them so profitable in recent years.
