Wall Street Wavers in Morning Trade
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks are wavering in morning trading on Wall Street Wednesday, a day after the market's worst performance in a month.
The S&P 500 is mostly unchanged following a 2.1% drop a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15 points, or less than 0.1%, to 40,954. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.2% as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern.
Technology stocks were the biggest weights on the market. Some of the bigger companies in the sector have an outsized impact on the broader market because of their large market values.
Nvidia fell 0.8% following a report from Bloomberg that the U.S. Department of Justice sent the semiconductor company subpoenas as part of a antitrust probe.
Apple fell 1.1% and Microsoft fell 0.7%.
Dollar Tree slumped 20% after the discount retailer slashed its full year earnings forecast. Hormel shares fell 9% after its sales missed analysts' estimates for the latest quarter.
Department store operator Nordstrom rose 1.6% after members of the Nordstrom family offered to take the company private for $3.76 billion per share cash, months after first expressing interest in a buyout.
Investors concerned about the strength of the U.S. economy will be closely watching the latest update on job openings from the Labor Department later in the morning.
Markets in Europe and Asia fell.
Rising oil supplies were driving down prices, as Libya moved closer to resolving a conflict over control of the country's oil revenue that meant its oil production may soon increase. The price of U.S. crude fell below $70 a barrel.
Growing worries about China's economy -- the world's largest importer of crude oil -- also amplified doubts about future oil demand, especially after the recent release of weak data, which was dragged down by a real estate slump and weak consumption.