Stock market today: Wall Street slides lower ahead of labor market data, oil prices rise again

The Fearless Girl statues faces the New York Stock Exchange on July 2, 2024, in New York. Global stocks are mostly lower after benchmarks ended higher on Wall Street. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

Wall Street veered toward losses before the open Tuesday, while oil prices rose to their highest level since mid-April, pushing shares of energy energy companies higher.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.3% before the bell and futures for the S&P 500 w fell 0.4%.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 73 cents to $84.11 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The cost for a barrel of U.S. crude had risen almost 18% this year, though gas prices have remained relatively low compared with 2023.

Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, BP and Chevron all made modest gains in contrast to declines in the broader market.

Brent crude, the international standard, added 70 cents to $87.30 per barrel. A barrel is up 13% in 2024.

Paramount Global, which has been a takeover target for months, rose 3.1% on reports that there were multiple offers for its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements.

There is new data arriving Tuesday from the government on job openings for May. More labor market data is coming later in the week, with jobless claims Wednesday and the government's comprehensive June jobs report coming Friday.

The labor market has held up better than most experts expected after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March of 2022, however some softness is beginning to show. Applications for jobless benefits are trending higher in June after remaining mostly below 220,000 this year. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4% in May, despite the fact that U.S. employers added a strong 272,000 jobs last month. Job postings for April hit their lowest level since 2021.

European stocks fell significantly after the 20-nation bloc reported that inflation crept lower — to 2.5% in June — but remained stuck above the level favored by the European Central Bank.

Germany’s DAX lost 1.1% and Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.4%.

France’s CAC 40 dropped 1% in early trading. The benchmark jumped as much as 2.8% before settling to a gain of 1.1% on Monday as results from France suggested a far-right political party may not win a decisive majority in the country’s legislative elections.

That raised the possibility of gridlock in the French government, which would prevent a worst-case scenario where a far-right with a clear majority could push policies that would greatly increase the French government’s debt.

This is a big year for elections worldwide, with voters heading to the polls in the United Kingdom later this week and soon elsewhere. In the United States, pollsters are measuring the fallout from last week’s debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

In Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.1% to 40,074.69 as the weaker yen spurred buying of export-oriented shares.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.4% to 7,718.20 and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.8% to 2,780.86 despite data from Statistics Korea showing the country’s consumer inflation slowed to an 11-month low in June.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.3% to 17,769.14 and the Shanghai Composite index edged up 0.1% to 2,997.01.

Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.6%, while the SET in Bangkok slipped 0.5%.

The Japanese yen fell to near a fresh 38-year low, reaching 161.67 yen to the dollar early Tuesday. It later gained to 161.62.

The euro cost $1.0723, down from $1.0738.

On Monday, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1%. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.8%.

Zimo Zhong And Matt Ott, The Associated Press