By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 struggled for direction Wednesday, as energy continued to rack up gains, but a stumble in materials and consumer stocks kept gains in check ahead of the jobs numbers due later this week.
The S&P 500 fell 0.03%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.01%, or 3 points, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.11%.
Energy jumped nearly 2%, underpinned by rising oil prices as investors bet on increasing demand over the summer offsetting major oil producer plans to gradually lift production.
Sentiment on oil prices has also been supported by growing expectations Iranian supply to market will be delayed because of talks over a nuclear deal.
"The return of Iranian barrels does not appear to be an imminent issue for the oil market with the fifth round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna failing to produce a major diplomatic breakthrough," RBC said in a note Monday.
Tech made modest gains as semiconductor and megacap tech stocks were mostly higher.
With the exception of Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), the rest of the Fab 5 stocks including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and traded lower, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) were above the flatline.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose more than 3%, helping the broader iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) climb 1%.
Stay at home stocks were mixed as Zoom Video (NASDAQ:ZM) slipped despite reporting blow out quarterly results.
"Zoom reported another strong showing in 1QFY22 to start the year…," Oppenheimer said. "Looking ahead, our attention turns to the pace of G2K penetration, new product adoption, and churn for customers with fewer than ten employees."
Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ:PTON), and DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) were mixed.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE), meanwhile, fell more than 1% despite beating first-quarter expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
Materials were in the red, keeping the broader market in check, paced by a decline in Nucor (NYSE:NUE), Packaging Corp of America (NYSE:PKG) and Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (NYSE:FCX).
As the week progresses, investor attention will turn to the monthly jobs report for May due Friday. Economists forecast that 650,000 jobs were created in May.
Reddit-favorite AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) added to gains from a day earlier, doubling in price intraday after launching a communication services, Investor Connect, to take advantage of its expanding retail shareholder base.
Other so-called meme stocks were also in the ascendency. GameStop (NYSE:GME) was up 8% and BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) was were up 21%.