The US stock market was slow in trading on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ending lower.
Continued weakness in economic data published this week appears to be fueling renewed fears of a recession in the US.
This in turn inhibited US stock trading from moving higher to resume previous gains.
Published ADP data showed private sector employment growth fell below expectations and expansion in the services sector lost momentum in March.
The Dow Jones Industrials closed slightly higher by 0.24% to 33,482.72, while the S&P 500 lost 0.25% to 4,090.38, and the Nasdaq fell 1.01% to 12,967.20.
The US30 index declined slightly at 33,149.7 during the Asian session.
Declines in the Nasdaq were driven by falling tech stocks, with NVIDIA down 2.08%, AMD down 3.45% and Globalfoundries down 4.50%.
Meanwhile, Tesla Inc recorded a decrease of 3.7%, while Amazon and Apple declined by more than 1%.
Meanwhile, strong performance in healthcare stocks supported the Dow Jones to close positively.
Johnson & Johnson rose 4% as traders reacted to the proposed $8.9 billion talc settlement.
UnitedHealth, Merck and Amgen also gained momentum following gains in Johnson & Johnson shares.
