Financial Markets                      01/07 09:33

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street's hot start to the year is cooling a bit on 
Wednesday.

   The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in early trading, coming off its latest 
all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 18 points, or less than 
0.1%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% 
higher, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time.

   Moves were relatively quiet across the U.S. stock market, including for 
Warner Bros. Discovery after it again rejected a buyout bid from Paramount and 
told its shareholders to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.

   Warner Bros. Discovery was flat, while Paramount Skydance slipped 0.4% and 
Netflix rose 1.1%.

   In the oil market, crude prices fell after President Donald Trump said 
Tuesday that Venezuela would provide 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil to 
the United States. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude dropped 1.1% to $56.52. 
Brent crude, the international standard, fell a more modest 0.4% to $60.42 per 
barrel.

   Prices for oil have swung through the week following Trump's weekend move 
against Venezuela, which is likely sitting on some of the largest deposits of 
oil in the world.

   Any additional oil flowing from Venezuela into the global system would push 
down on crude prices by increasing their supplies. Oil prices had already 
earlier fallen back to where they were in 2021 because of expectations of 
plentiful supplies. But to pull much more oil from the Venezuelan ground would 
likely require big investments to improve aging infrastructure.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields eased after a report suggested employers 
outside of the government added 41,000 more jobs last month than they cut. 
That's a return to growth for the survey by ADP, but Wall Street often waits 
for the U.S. Labor Department's more comprehensive monthly numbers to fully 
react. That will come on Friday.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.13% from 4.18% late Tuesday.

   The hope on Wall Street is that the job market remains solid enough for the 
economy to avoid a recession but not so strong that it keeps the Federal 
Reserve from cutting interest rates. The Fed cut its main interest rate three 
times last year to shore up the slowing job market, but it's indicated fewer 
cuts may be ahead because inflation stubbornly remains above its 2% target.

   Lower interest rates can worsen inflation, while also giving the economy and 
investment prices a boost.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed among some sharp moves across 
Europe and Asia.

   Indexes dropped 0.8% in London, 0.9% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Tokyo, while 
rising 0.6% in Seoul.

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   AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

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