Wall Street weaker on Fed questions

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks posted slim losses Wednesday afternoon as investors mulled the morning's mostly in-line readings on the services sector and private sector employment, ahead of Friday's big jobs report.

The Dow Jones industrial average (Charts), the tech-fueled Nasdaq composite (Charts) and the broader S&P 500 (Charts) index all slipped modestly around 3 hours into the session.

All three major gauges had been even weaker in the early going, but managed to trim losses as the session wore on.

Since the Federal Reserve surprised Wall Street last month by cutting a key short-term interest rate more than expected, investors have been looking for evidence that the bankers will cut rates again at their next meeting at the end of October.

A string of weak economic reports last week seemed to raise hopes that the Fed could cut rates again, but Wednesday's economic news was pretty mixed.

"Today's numbers show we are basically treading water economically right now, confirming that things are OK, but not great," said Georges Yared, chief investment strategist at Yared Investment Research.

Stocks ended mixed Tuesday after a tough session in which dismal news about auto sales and the housing sector caused investors to pause after the previous day's rally.

That sense of investor reluctance remained Wednesday as investors parsed the economic news.

The Institute for Supply Management's report on the services sector of the economy fell to 54.8 in September from 55.8 in August, versus forecasts for a drop to 55.0 in the month.

Additionally, payroll services company ADP estimated that the private sector added about 58,000 jobs in September, roughly in line with forecasts for 60,000.

The mostly in-line report seemed to suggest that Friday's more market-moving government report could be close to forecasts as well.

Economists expect employers added around 100,000 jobs to their payrolls in the month, after reporting a drop in payrolls last month of 4,000. The unemployment report, generated by a different survey, is expected to have risen to a 4.7 percent annualized rate from a 4.6 percent rate in August.

Wall Streeters are probably a bit leery of the report following last month's decline, Yared said. "It will be interesting to see if wages hold up."

Ahead of the jobs report, another report Wednesday showed that about 37 percent of job cuts in September were connected to the housing slump, according to a survey released by consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Among stock movers, semiconductors were especially weak following Micron Technology (Charts, Fortune 500)'s earnings report, released late Tuesday.

The memory chip maker reported a quarterly loss after having reported a profit a year ago, due to the impact of lower prices for its products. The quarterly loss was narrower than what analysts had forecasts. Micron also reported higher revenue that was short of forecasts.

Brokerage Morgan Stanley started coverage of Intel (Charts, Fortune 500), Advanced Micro Devices (Charts, Fortune 500) and Nvidia (Charts) with an "underweight" rating, Briefing.com reported. All three chipmakers slipped in the early going.

On the upside, homebuilders continued to rally for the third day in a row, including Lennar (Charts, Fortune 500), Centex (Charts, Fortune 500) and Toll Brothers (Charts, Fortune 500).

Verizon (Charts, Fortune 500) was active but little changed after the company's wireless division said it was a launching a cell phone similar to Apple (Charts, Fortune 500)'s popular iPhone.

Casino stocks slumped after a Morgan Stanley note said September gaming revenue was weak in the Macau region of China, AP reported. Wynn Casinos (Charts) and Las Vegas Sands (Charts), both of which have exposure to the region, slumped in unusually active trading.

Market breadth was negative. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners eight to seven on volume of 600 million shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers seven to six on volume of 960 million shares.

Oil prices were volatile after a mixed weekly oil inventory report. U.S. light crude for November delivery rose 50 cents to $80.55 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after having seesawed through the morning.

COMEX gold for December delivery fell $1.80 to $734.50 an ounce.

Treasury prices gave up early gains, turning lower. The selloff boosted the yield on the 10-year note to 4.56 percent from 4.53 percent late Monday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

In currency trading, the dollar fell versus the euro and inched higher versus the yen.