Lifeless Markets Tumble Again

Stocks crawled to a slightly lower close on Wednesday, their fourth down day in a row, as Wall Street failed to rebound from Tuesday’s plunge amid apprehension over a pair of key labor reports due later this week.
A labor-market report showing more private-sector job losses in August than forecast made investors nervous ahead of Friday's highly anticipated monthly jobs data from the U.S. Labor Department.

Major indexes fluctuated between positive and negative territory throughout the day before closing in the red, with S&P 500 posting its worst losing streak since late May.

Today's Markets
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 29.93, or 0.3 percent, to 9,280.67.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.29, or 0.3 percent, to 994.75.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 1.82, or 0.1 percent, to 1,967.07.

For the week:
The Dow is down 263.53, or 2.8 percent.
The S&P is down 34.18, or 3.3 percent.
The Nasdaq down 61.70, or 3.0 percent.
For the year:
The Dow is up 504.28, or 5.7 percent. The S&P is up 91.50, or 10.1 percent.
The Nasdaq is up 390.04, or 24.7 percent.

The markets straddled the flat line throughout the day before ending near session lows amid what is typically one of the slowest weeks of the year. Underscoring the lifelessness, crude oil closed the day exactly unchanged at $68.05 a barrel.

The weak session comes after the Dow tumbled 186 points on Tuesday in the face of positive economic news, its steepest selloff since Aug. 17.

“Yesterday’s selloff should’ve been met with a little bit of a bounce this morning. We didn’t get the bounce,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Markets. “Today’s lack of conviction to me means the [initial jobless claims] number better be spectacular tomorrow otherwise we’re going to selloff.”

Oil prices flat as driving season closes out

Oil prices didn't budge Wednesday despite an Energy Department report showing a drop in crude and gasoline supplies.Benchmark crude for October delivery closed where it began at $68.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.91 on Tuesday.

Oil had been trading higher overnight after the American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that U.S. inventories fell by 3.2 million barrels last week. Refiners voluntarily report the API numbers, while the Energy Department reports mandatory supply figures.

But crude prices slipped just ahead of the Energy Department report, as new figures from the Labor Department showed companies earlier this year slashed spending on everything, including energy. The morning crude inventories report boosted prices above $68, but the rally couldn't hold.