Investing.com-- U.S. stocks were little changed Wednesday in holiday-impacted volumes, consolidating after recent gains ahead of the widely-watched official jobs report.Â
At 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT), the rose 75 points, or 0.2%, the climbed 4 points, or 0.1%, and the edged 7 points, or 0.1%, higher.Â
The main Wall Street indices are set for a shortened trading day on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's Independence Day holiday, and come off strong gains on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell flagged some progress in cooling inflation.
Fed minutes, labor data in focusÂ
Fed Chair Jerome Powell flagged some progress in bringing down inflation, as he appeared at a European Central Bank forum in Portugal on Tuesday, although he warned that the Fed still needed much more confidence to begin cutting interest rates.Â
Investors will now focus on the of the Fed’s June meeting, which are due later in the session. This was the meeting which saw the U.S. central bank keep rates steady, but slash its forecast for interest rate cuts in 2024, citing concerns over the sticky inflation.
Earlier Wednesday, data showed that U.S. increased by 150,000 jobs in June, below May's revised 157,000 growth, consistent with slowing labor market momentum.
Friday sees the release of the July report, which could provide further clues over when the U.S. central bank will start its rate-cutting cycle, given strength in the labor market is another key consideration for the Fed in cutting interest rates.Â
Market participants see a 65% chance of the first rate cut in September, and around two cuts by year end, as per LSEG's FedWatch data.
Paramount Global surgesÂ
Paramount Global (NASDAQ:) stock jumped over 11% after after Multibagger reported that Shari Redstone's National Amusements has agreed to a preliminary deal to sell a controlling stake in the movie studio to David Ellison's Skydance Media.
First Foundation (NYSE:) slid 20% after the bank received a surprise $228 million equity investment, prompting worries about the Texas-based lender's exposure to commercial real estate loans.
Apple (NASDAQ:) stock edged higher with the iPhone maker set to take an observer role on the board of ChatGPT-maker and artificial intelligence-darling OpenAI, according to media reports.
Crude steady ahead of official U.S. inventory data
Crude prices traded unchanged Wednesday, giving back early gains which has been prompted by industry data showing a bigger-than-expected draw in U.S. crude inventories.
By 09:35 ET, the futures (WTI) traded unchanged at $82.81 per barrel, while the Brent contract was flat at $86.23 a barrel.
Both benchmarks had fallen back from their highest levels since the end of April during the previous session on fading concerns that Hurricane Beryl would disrupt production in the Gulf of Mexico.
The industry body released data on Tuesday showing that U.S. crude oil inventories fell by just over 9 million barrels in the week ended June 28, much more than expected.
The is due to release the official weekly data later in the session.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this artcle.)