Wall Street was moving without a clear trend on Wednesday at the start of a session featuring numerous economic indicators, while cautious trading on the eve of Independence Day did not prevent the Nasdaq from setting new records.

At the end of the morning, the Dow Jones was down by around 0.1% at 39,276.2 points, while the Nasdaq Composite was up by almost 0.5% at 18,111.5 points after setting a new all-time high beyond Independence Day.276.2 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained almost 0.5% to 18,111.5 points, after setting a new all-time high above 18,113.1 points.

Trading volumes are expected to be low, and initiatives limited in this shortened session, which will see trading come to a halt at 1:00 pm (New York time).

To make matters worse, the lacklustre statistics published over the course of the morning did not help investors to take clear-cut positions.

Activity in the services sector contracted for the second time in three months, according to the latest survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM).

The ISM services index came in at 48.8 in June, down five points on May (53.8), when economists were expecting it to average around 52.5.

On the employment front, weekly jobless claims edged up by 4,000 to 238,000 in the week to July 29, a further sign that the labor market is easing, which could lead the Fed to cut rates in September.

In another sign of easing, the private sector generated just 150,000 jobs last month, a drop of 2.5% on the previous month.000 jobs last month, a number slightly below economists' expectations, according to the latest survey published by ADP.

These weaker-than-expected statistics could, however, prompt the Federal Reserve to cut its key rates as early as September, generating a rather bullish bias on equities.

As if to illustrate this point, the figures unveiled this morning had the effect of pushing the yield on 10-year Treasuries back down to almost one-month lows (4.34%).

In reaction to these indicators, the dollar is also tending to deepen its losses against the euro, which is taking advantage of the situation to climb back up to around 1.1805.

On the oil front, WTI is back to its highest level since May, at nearly $83 a barrel, in the wake of last week's announcement of a decline in US crude inventories.

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