'He's in our hearts': Family and friends still seek answers one year after Nathan Wise’s disappearance
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Stocks gave back some of their recent gains Wednesday after a disappointing jobs report stoked worry about the strength of the economic recovery as a highly contagious variant of the coronavirus spreads.
The S&P 500 fell 0.5%, easing back from the all-time high the benchmark index set a day earlier. Crude oil prices fell more than 3% and pushed energy companies lower. Industrial firms, banks, retailers, hotels and other companies that rely on direct consumer spending also fell. Those losses outweighed gains in technology and communication stocks.
Payroll processor ADP revealed a disappointing snapshot of the nation's employment recovery, adding to concerns about the lagging recovery in the jobs market. ADP said the private sector added 330,000 jobs in July, falling far short of economists' expectations. The report comes ahead of the Labor Department's more comprehensive July jobs report on Friday.
"You're getting some mixed signals, certainly, but we think we'll get some good growth and the underlying economy is pretty good," said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
The recovery in the jobs market will likely continue to be bumpy, but it's on track to continue improving over the long term, he said.
The S&P 500 fell 20.49 points to 4,402.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 323.73 points, or 0.9%, to 34,792.67. The Nasdaq composite added 19.24 points, or 0.1%, to 14,780.53. The Dow and Nasdaq each hit all-time highs just last week.
Stocks have been choppy this week as investors continue to pore over corporate earnings reports while reviewing economic data for clues as to how the economic recovery is going.
Wednesday's jobs survey from ADP raised doubts that Friday's broader July jobs report will exceed expectations. Economists are projecting that U.S. employers added 700,000 jobs last month, and that the national unemployment rate slipped to 5.7% from 5.9%, according to FactSet.
That outlook is now likely too optimistic, because of the sudden resurgence in COVID-19 cases due to the delta variant, Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network, wrote Wednesday.
And if Friday's job report shows a similar shortfall as the ADP survey, that "would signal that the job recovery has slowed, at a minimum," McMillan wrote.
Traders also weighed an encouraging report on growth in the services sector, which makes up the bulk of the U.S. economy. The Institute for Supply Management reported that in July the sector grew at its fastest pace since the survey started in 2008.
Bond yields mostly recovered from an early slip following the release of the report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 1.16%, down from 1.17% late Tuesday. It dipped as low as 1.13% in early trading.
The resurgence of COVID-19 with the highly contagious delta variant in spots around the world is also a key concern for Wall Street. China's worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic a year and a half ago escalated Wednesday with dozens more cases around the country and the sealing-off of one city.
While analysts don't expect the spike in infections to send the world back in to the lockdowns experienced a year ago, it could still stunt economic growth.
Still, worries about the delta variant, sluggish employment growth and signs the Federal Reserve is beginning to consider reducing its support for the economy amid rising inflation all point to "slowing growth later in the year, or more likely 2022," said Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors.
Investors are also still in the thick of corporate earnings season. The results have been solid so far. Roughly 75% of companies in the S&P 500 have turned in their earnings and the majority have been surprisingly good.
Strong profit and revenue results weren't enough to lift stocks for many companies on Wednesday, however. General Motors fell 8.9% despite overcoming an industry-wide chip shortage to beat analysts' profit expectations and raise its forecast. CVS Health slipped 2.9% after also reporting solid results.
Ticket seller and concert promoter Live Nation rose 1.5% after reporting surprisingly mild second-quarter loss. Cruise line operator Royal Caribbean Group slid 2.5% after its latest quarterly results fell short of analysts' expectations.
Online broker Robinhood surged 50.4%, a big turnaround following its tepid stock market debut last week. Trading was volatile and had to be halted three times shortly after the market opened. Market experts have cautioned that Robinhood's stock could be in for a jagged ride because of its popularity among smaller investors.
It’s been a year since Nathan Wise went missing and his family is no closer to finding out what happened to him.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
Amazon's paid subscription service provides free delivery for online shopping across Canada except for remote locations, the company said in an email. While customers in Iqaluit qualify for the offer, all other communities in Nunavut are excluded.
The fire burning near Fort McMurray grew from 25 hectares to 5,500 hectares over the weekend.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin began a Cabinet shakeup on Sunday, proposing the replacement of Sergei Shoigu as defence minister as he begins his fifth term in office.
Police are searching for a male suspect after a man was “slashed in neck” on Sunday morning in downtown Toronto and died.
There were some scary moments for several people on a northern Ontario highway caught on video Thursday after a chain reaction following a truck fire.
Health Canada announced various product recalls this week, including electric adapters, armchairs, cannabis edibles and vehicle components.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.