U.S. stock markets slipped on Wednesday, as disappointing data on non-manufacturing activity offset an upbeat report on private sector job losses.
During early U.S. trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.33%, the S&P 500 index slipped 0.47% and the Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.22%.
Earlier Wednesday, the payroll processing company Automatic Data Processing said U.S. employers cut 22,000 non-farm jobs in the private sector in January, far less than analysts had forecast.
But the positive report was quickly followed by the Institute of Supply Management's release of its Non-Manufacturing Index for January. The index came in at 50.5, lower than the reading of 51 that analysts had expected.
The institute also revised December's figure down to 49.8 from 50.1.