The impact of Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell's statement continued to affect the US stock market to remain under pressure on Wednesday.
This was reflected in the mixed trade of the three main indexes where the Dow Jones Industrial closed lower at 32,798 with a loss of 0.18%, while the S&P 500 was little changed at 3,992 and the Nasdaq slightly increased at 12,215.33.
In the New York session, investors were treated to a reading of US ADP employment data that showed the private sector added 242,000 jobs in February compared to expectations for an increase of 200,000.
The JOLTs job openings report also showed better-than-expected readings, highlighting the strength of the labor market.
Even so, the report did not have a significant impact on the market as investors are already prepared with the expectation that the Fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points at this month's meeting.
Among the stocks that took center stage on the Nasdaq were AMD and NVIDIA, which rose about 3% following investors' expectations that AI-related demand would boost revenue for both companies.
The Dow Jones moved weakly even though Apple and Intel managed to make some gains in Wednesday's trading session.
The focus is now on the US NFP jobs data to see if it will support the central bank's expectation to continue raising interest rates.
