U.S. stocks finished slightly lower in choppy trading on Wednesday following labor market data and comments from a Federal Reserve official that bolster the case for an interest rate cut.

Market Snapshot

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38.04 points, or 0.09%, to 40,974.97, the S&P 500 lost 8.86 points, or 0.16%, to 5,520.07 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 52 points, or 0.30%, to 17,084.30.

Market Movers

C3.ai missed quarterly subscription revenue estimates on Wednesday, as enterprises tightened spending amid economic uncertainties, sending its shares down by 16% in after-hours trading.

Tesla, the electric-vehicle maker, was tied with Mondelez International as the best-performing stock in the S&P 500. Both stocks rose 4.2%. Tesla stock has been up three of the past four days but remains down 12% this year.

U.S. Steel tumbled 17% to $29.38 after the Washington Post reported President Joe Biden would block a deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to buy the company for $55 a share.

Frontier Communications charged 38% higher after The Wall Street Journal reported Verizon Communications was in advanced talks to acquire the company. An announcement could be made this week, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Nvidia slipped 1.7%. On Tuesday, fears over chip demand sent the semiconductor maker down 9.5%. The decline erased $278.9 billion from the company ’ s market value and was the largest one-day market cap loss for any U.S. company on record, exceeding Meta Platform ’ s $232 billion decline on Feb. 3, 2022.

Intel was down 3.3% after Reuters reported the company ’ s silicon wafers failed tests conducted by Broadcom. Broadcom, which reports quarterly earnings Thursday, rose 0.9%.

Super Micro Computer declined 4.1%, to $423.47, after analysts at Barclays reduced their recommendation on the server maker to Equal Weight from Overweight and cut their price target to $438 from $693. The stock rose 0.9% on Tuesday after CEO Charles Liang said a short-seller report, which sank the stock last week, "contains false or inaccurate statements about our company … "

ASML Holding, a supplier of lithography machines for manufacturing semiconductors, fell 4% on a ratings downgrade. UBS moved the company ’ s stock to Neutral from Buy and reduced its price target.

Zscaler fell 19% after the cybersecurity company ’ s profit outlook for its fiscal first quarter missed analysts ’ estimates. Zscaler said it expects adjusted earnings of 62 cents to 63 cents a share in the period; Wall Street expected 73 cents. For its fiscal year, the company said it sees adjusted earnings of $2.81 to $2.87 a share, compared with forecasts of $3.33. Adjusted earnings and revenue in Zscaler ’ s fiscal fourth quarter beat estimates.

GitLab, the software-development platform, raised its fiscal 2025 outlook. The stock jumped 22%. GitLab said it expects fiscal-year sales of $742 million to $744 million, above a previous forecast of $733 million to $737 million. The company also raised its outlook for adjusted earnings, saying it expects 45 cents to 47 cents a share, higher than its previous guidance of 34 cents to 37 cents.

Dollar Tree dropped 22% after the discount retailer ’ s fiscal second-quarter earnings missed analysts ’ expectations and the company cut its fiscal-year outlook.

PagerDuty reported better-than-expected second-quarter adjusted earnings, but the stock fell 1% after revenue in the period was weaker than expected and the cybersecurity company reduced fiscal-year revenue guidance. PagerDuty expects revenue of $463 million to $467 million in its fiscal year, down from previous guidance for $471 million to $477 million.

Asana dropped 5%. The work-management software company said it expects an adjusted loss of 7 cents a share on revenue of $180 million to $181 million for its fiscal third quarter. Analysts had expected a loss of 3 cents a share on revenue of $182.3 million.

Hormel Foods fell 6.4% after the owner of brands such as Spam and Planters reported fiscal third-quarter sales that missed estimates and lowered its guidance.

Dick ’ s Sporting Goods was down 4.9% after the sporting-goods retailer raised its fiscal-year outlook but its earnings prediction was short of Wall Street projections.

Market News

US Job Openings Hit 3-1/2-Year Low as Labor Market Eases

U.S. job openings dropped to a 3-1/2-year low in July, suggesting the labor market was losing steam, but the reduction on its own is probably not enough to warrant a half-percentage-point interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve this month.

The larger-than-expected decline in unfilled jobs shown in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, from the Labor Department on Wednesday meant there were 1.07 open positions for every unemployed person in July. That was the least since May 2021 and down from 1.16 in June. The vacancies-to-unemployed ratio peaked just above 2.0 in 2022.

US Firms See Weaker Employment Growth as Economy Slows, Fed Survey Shows

U.S. economic activity expanded more slowly from the middle of July through late August and businesses pulled back on hiring, signals that underscore why the Federal Reserve is set to begin to lower interest rates later this month.

The U.S. central bank's latest temperature check on the health of the economy also showed that inflation pressures increased at a modest pace, with input costs viewed by all but one of the Fed's 12 districts as generally easing.

Nvidia Says It Has "Not Been Subpoenaed" by the DOJ in Probe

Nvidia Corp., responding to a Bloomberg News report about the US Department of Justice sending out subpoenas as part of an antitrust probe, said it has been in contact with the government agency but hasn ’ t been subpoenaed.

The DOJ often sends requests for information in the form of what ’ s known as a civil investigative demand, which is commonly referred to as a subpoena. The Department of Justice has sent such a request seeking information about Nvidia ’ s acquisition of RunAI and aspects of its chip business, according to one person with direct knowledge of the matter.