U.S. Stocks Close Weak As Investors Await Vote On Debt Ceiling

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks ended weak on Wednesday after languishing in negative territory right through the day's session.

The major averages all ended with moderate losses despite coming off the day's lows.

The Dow, which dropped to 32,739.73 around mid morning, ended the session at 32,908.27 with a loss of 134.51 points or 0.41 percent. The S&P 500 settled with a loss of 25.69 points or 0.61 percent at 4,179.83, while the Nasdaq ended down 82.14 points or 0.63 percent at 12,935.29.

The weakness in the market came as traders kept a close eye on developments regarding the bill to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avoid potentially disastrous default.

The debt bill, which advanced out of the House Rules Committee on Tuesday, is set to be voted on in the House this evening.

Data released by the Labor Department this morning showed job openings rose to 10.1 million in April from a revised 9.7 million in March. Economists had expected job openings to decrease to 9.4 million.

Continued strength in the labor market may raise concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of Friday's closely watched monthly jobs report.

3M, Home Depot, Travlers Companies and Goldman Sachs ended down 2 to 2.5 percent.

NVIDIA Corporation shares declined nearly 6 percent. Caterpillar, JP Morgan, Chevron, Honeywell International, IBM and Cisco Systems also ended notably lower.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares tumbled more than 6 percent after the company's revenue fell short of expectations in the latest quarter due to pressure from weaker PC demand.

Intel shares climbed nearly 7 percent. Verizon surged 2.1 percent and Walgreens Boots Alliance gained 1.6 percent.

Merck, Amgen, Salesforce.com, United Health, Apple, Walmart and Boeing posted moderate gains.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Wednesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index plunged by 1.9 percent.

The major European markets fell as concerns about economic slowdown following disappointing data out of China, and prospects of further interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve and other leading central banks rendered the mood bearish.

The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 1.07 percent. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 1.01 percent down, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 both lost about 1.55 percent.