LIVE MARKETS-Wall Street starts slow, Dow leads
SPY•SPY•SPY•SPY•US indexes mixed, Nasdaq lags while Dow leads
Materials lead S&P 500 sectors, utilities lag most
STOXX down 0.2%
Dollar edges down, U.S. crude dips, gold up >1%, bitcoin off ~0.5%
US 10-year Treasury yields dip to ~4.788%
Among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, six were falling with real estate .SPLRCR and utilities .SPLRCU leading losses with both down more than 1% while materials .SPLRCM and healthcare .SPXHC gained most, with both up about 1.4%.
In healthcare, Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N was one of the biggest gainers, up more than 2% after UBS raised its price target for the company to $320 from $280. Its gains also boosted the Dow .DJI, which was the strongest of the three main indexes.
And among other individual stocks, Dell Technologies DELL.N rose more than 6% after the company boosted its annual revenue forecast by $25 billion while also raising its profit outlook for the second time this year, driven by soaring demand for its AI servers.
Wall Street's major indexes had a muted start to Wednesday's session with the Dow outperforming with a modest gain, after the latest data showed a softening of the labor market but while bond yields paused their recent advance, oil prices retreated from one-month highs even as Middle East fighting intensified.
Iranians and their Arab neighbours were plunged back into war on Wednesday by the biggest exchange of fire between Tehran and Washington since July, with U.S. forces striking Iran's southern coast and Iran firing at American bases across the region.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York President John Williams said on CNBC that rising long-term bond yields are not driven by inflation fears but are instead a reflection of a solid economy and that he was still collecting information to drive his next monetary policy decision.
On the data front, U.S. private payrolls increased moderately in August, according to the ADP National Employment Report, which showed employment rising by 38,000 jobs last month after an upwardly revised 46,000 in July. The August number compares with economist expectations for 48,000 after a previously reported increase of 44,000 in July.
