Major indexes opened higher Wednesday after ADP reported weaker-than-expected private payroll growth for August. The S&P 500 climbed 0.5% and the Dow gained 0.7% just after the open, while the ADP report showed hiring cooling to its slowest pace since January.
Wall Street pushed higher Wednesday morning after a weaker-than-expected private-payrolls report. Just after the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.7%, while the S&P 500 added 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4% in morning trading.
ADP payrolls miss estimates
Early Wednesday, ADP said private payrolls rose 38,000 in August, missing estimates that called for a gain of 48,000 and marking the slowest pace of job creation since January. The increase followed an upwardly revised 46,000 gain in July, against a previously reported rise of 44,000.
According to ADP: "Pay can tell us a lot about today's choppy hiring." Chief economist Nela Richardson added that predictable wage growth has been overtaken by demographic change, persistent inflation and AI's effects on jobs.
Manufacturing sheds jobs as services hire
Education and health services payrolls increased by 45,000 positions, while leisure and hospitality added 16,000 jobs and construction gained 12,000. But manufacturing shed 17,000 jobs and professional and business services lost 16,000 positions, with declines in trade, transportation and utilities as well.
The ADP report, jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, lands ahead of the Labor Department's more closely watched employment report due Friday. Economists polled by Reuters expect nonfarm payrolls to rebound by 56,000 jobs in August after a surprise decline of 23,000 in July, with the unemployment rate seen holding at 4.1%.
Sources: Investor's Business Daily, Economic Indicators News
Trading involves risk.