Stocks Wobbled after Losing Streak

U.S. stocks erased mild opening gains on Wednesday as investors drew only limited cheer from a better-than-anticipated report on the labor front. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 39.55 points to 11,827.07. The Standard & Poor’s Index was off 3.85 points at 1,250.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 4.48 points to 2,664.76.

Private employers added more jobs than expected in July, though less than in June, but planned layoffs rose to a 16- month high, according to separate surveys on Wednesday. U.S. private employers added 114,000 jobs in July, topping economists’ expectations, a report by a payrolls processor ADP showed on Wednesday.

Oil prices fell to near $93 a barrel Wednesday as investor pessimism about the U.S. economy dragged down global markets. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for September delivery was down 48 cents to $93.31 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

MasterCard Inc. said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit rose 33 percent. The company said net income rose to $608 million, or $4.76 per share, for the three months ended June 30. That was up from 4458 million, or $3.49 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 22 percent to $1.67 billion, from $1.37 billion a year ago.