By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 closed flat again Wednesday, as gains in energy were canceled out by a weakness in materials and consumer stocks as investors looked ahead of Friday's jobs report for further direction.
The S&P 500 closed up 0.14%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.07%, or 25 points, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.14%.
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 the 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 Tuesday.
Tech made modest gains as semiconductor and megacap tech stocks were mostly higher.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), were higher, while Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) ended below the flatline.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rose more than 3%, helping the broader iShares PHLX Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) remain above the flatline.
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, ended the day roughly unchanged 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.
Ahead of the jobs report, the Fed's Beige Book highlighted the ongoing labor supply shortage and faster pace of inflation, and suggested both trends are set to continue in the months ahead.
Reddit-favorite AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) nearly doubled in price to close at record highs, and was halted several times intraday amid wild swings. The move higher in move chain company comes as it launched 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 13% and BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) was were up 32%.