U.S. stocks are coasting toward the finish of Wall Street’s latest winning month on Tuesday.
The S&P 500 fell 0.2% in afternoon trading but remains on track for a fifth straight winning month after setting a record last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 145 points, or 0.3%, as of 1:43 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.
Oil-related companies weighed on the market after the price of crude fell again as traders see too much oil washing around the world. Schlumberger fell 3.8%, and Halliburton dropped 3%.
They helped offset a 12.7% jump for CoreWeave, which said Meta Platforms will pay up to $14.2 billion for a new order for cloud computing power made under its existing service agreement, with the potential for more.
Treasury yields eased in the bond market following a couple mixed reports on the U.S. economy. One said consumers are feeling less confident than economists expected, with many respondents in the Conference Board’s survey pointing to the slowing job market and inflation that has remained higher than anyone would like.
A second report suggested the job market may be remaining in its “low-hire, low-fire” state. U.S. employers were advertising roughly the same number of job openings at the end of August as the month before. The hope on Wall Street had been for a number that’s neither too high nor too low, one balanced enough to keep the Federal Reserve on track to continue cutting interest rates.
The Fed just delivered its first cut of the year, and officials have penciled in more through the end of next year to give the job market a boost. If data on jobs come in too strong, it could make the Fed less willing to cut rates. If the numbers are too weak, meanwhile, they could mean a recession is coming.
Either extreme would hurt the stock market, which has run to records from a low in April in large part on expectations that the Fed will cut rates several times. The stock market is already facing heavy criticism for being too expensive after prices ran so high.
Another potential wild card is hanging over the market, meanwhile. The U.S. government seems to be heading toward a shutdown at the end of the day following another political impasse in Washington.
The economy and stock market have made it through past shutdowns without much wear, and many economists and professional investors feel relatively OK about another one. The S&P 500 has climbed an average of 4.4% during past shutdowns and is positive over the last five, according to Monica Guerra, head of U.S. policy at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
The timing of this potential shutdown, though, would likely cause delays for several important economic reports. That includes a release due on Friday about how many jobs U.S. employers created and destroyed in September.
That could make Wall Street twitchier when investors are already nervous about the state of the economy and what that means for the potential for cuts to rates. The Department of Labor has already said that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will completely cease operations if there’s a lapse.
On Wall Street, Spotify Technology sank 6.4% after the Stockholm-based streaming giant said its founder, Daniel Ek, is stepping down as CEO to become the executive chairman. Two of his lieutenants will replace him as co-CEOs: Chief Product and Technology Officer Gustav Söderström and Chief Business Officer Alex Norström.
Lamb Weston jumped 4.1% after the supplier of frozen French fries and other potato products reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe following a mixed finish in Asia.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.14% from 4.15% late Monday.
—Stan Choe, AP business writer
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.