Stock market today: Live updates

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during opening bell in New York City on August 21, 2023. 

Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images

Stocks traded near the flatline Wednesday, complicating efforts for Wall Street to build on a three-day winning streak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 17 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 advanced 0.04% while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.1%.

Shares of Insulet pushed the S&P 500 higher after chief executive James Hollingshead increased his personal stake in the company by 19.4%. Elsewhere, Hewlett-Packard dipped 8% after reporting quarterly results which included a revenue miss.

Wednesday’s moves come as traders pore over disappointing payrolls data. ADP said private employers added 177,000 jobs in August. That’s well below a revised July number of 371,000. It also missed a Dow Jones estimate of 200,000.

Meanwhile, annual gross domestic product growth was downwardly revised on Wednesday to 2.1% from the previous 2.4% forecast.

This is the second day investors appear to treat weaker-than-expected economic data as good news for stocks.

“Traders and investors alike want to see ‘follow through’ in today’s market action, helping to confirm that the uptick in market performance is a more viable move as the market heads into September,” said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial.

On Tuesday, the major U.S. stock benchmarks rallied following the release of disappointing consumer confidence figures and a bigger-than-forecast drop in U.S. job openings for July. This sparked hope among traders that the Federal Reserve could lighten its policy stance sometime soon.

Tuesday’s “move goes back to a ‘bad news is good news’ type environment, which tends to be the case when investors are worried about rates and Fed policy,” said Sonu Varghese, global macro strategist at Carson Group. “Any softness in economic data results in less upward pressure on yields, and that helps equities.”

Despite the gains, the three major indexes remain on pace for losses in August with just two trading days left. The Nasdaq Composite is poised to end August 2.8% lower, while the Dow and S&P 500 are both slated for drops of around 2%.

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