The Fed is paying particular attention to the job market because too much strength there could drive wages for workers much higher, which it fears could keep inflation well above its target of 2 per cent.

Wednesday’s report from ADP suggested private employers added 89,000 jobs last month, a much sharper slowdown in hiring than the 140,000 that economists expected.

The report doesn’t have a perfect track record in predicting what the more comprehensive jobs report from the US government will say. That will arrive on Friday.

But “if Friday’s report also shows the labor market is cooling, stock investors may worry a little less about indefinitely higher interest rates,” said Mike Loewengart, head of model portfolio construction at Morgan Stanley Global Investment Office.

A second report on the economy said growth in US services industries slowed in September by a touch more than economists expected.

It also offered some hints of sticky pressure on inflation, with prices paid by services companies rising last month at a similar rate as in August.

Oil prices tumbled Wednesday to take some heat off inflation. Benchmark US crude fell $US5.01 to settle at $US84.22 per barrel for its worst drop in just over a year. It’s been pulling back since topping $US93 last week. Brent crude, the international standard, lost $US5.11 to $US85.81.

Prices for crude had been generally charging higher from $US70 during the summer following announcements of cuts to production by some oil-producing countries.

Wall Street is also absorbing the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as the speaker of the House of Representatives. The unprecedented move to remove a speaker from the position likely doesn’t change much in the short term, with funding for the US government set until Nov. 17.

“That said, a leadership vacuum in the House raises the odds of a government shutdown when the current funding extension expires,” according to economists at Goldman Sachs.

A shutdown would drag on the US economy, raising the risk of a recession, though financial markets have held up relatively well through past shutdowns.

On Wall Street, Big Tech stocks helped to support the market after leading it lower a day earlier. They tend to move more sharply with expectations for rates because high-growth stocks are seen as some of the biggest victims of high yields.

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A 5.9 per cent jump for Tesla and 1.8 per cent rise for Microsoft were the two strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. Alphabet rose 2.1 per cent.

On the losing end of Wall Street were big oil-and-gas companies, which fell with the price of crude. Exxon Mobil dropped 3.7 per cent, Chevron lost 2.3 per cent and ConocoPhillips slid 3.6 per cent.

Cal-Maine tumbled 7.3 per cent after the egg producer reported a sharp drop in profit for its latest quarter from a year earlier. The company said egg prices have returned “to more normalized levels” from their record highs as the industry recovers from the most recent outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 34.30 points to 4,263.75. The Dow added 127.17 to 33,129.55, and the Nasdaq jumped 176.54 to 13,236.01.

In markets abroad, stock indexes were mixed across much of Europe.

Asian stocks tumbled, coming off the prior day’s sharp losses from Wall Street. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index sank 2.3 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi dropped 2.4 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.8 per cent.

AP