Wall Street stocks dipped on Thursday as a drop in oil prices dragged down energy shares, while utilities reversed recent gains.
Oil prices fell more than $2 a barrel, wiping out early gains after the US government reported a weekly crude draw that was within analysts' forecasts, while market optimists expected larger declines.
The S&P energy index was down 1.5 per cent, while the utilities index was down the most at 1.9 per cent after mostly gaining since Britain's vote to leave the European Union. The telecom services index was down 1.8 per cent.
Labour data
Helping to limit declines, labour data increased optimism ahead of the monthly payrolls report, due on Friday.
The ADP national employment report showed that 172,000 jobs were added in the private sector in June, beating economists' expectation of 159,000.
Stocks rose on Wednesday, partly following minutes from the Federal Reserve's June meeting that indicated it will refrain from raising US interest rates soon.
“The one thing that made the Fed nervous was that poor jobs report last month (May),” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial in Waltham, Massachusetts.
The weak May report raised concerns about the recovery of the economy and was seen as throwing the Fed off track from its plans to raise rates in the near term.
At 2:45 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 97.76 points, or 0.55 percent, to 17,820.86, the S&P 500 had lost 9.87 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 2,089.86 and the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 1.44 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 4,857.73.
Shares of Humana Inc were down 11.1 percent after a source familiar with the situation said the US Department of Justice has significant concerns about Aetna Inc's proposed acquisition of Humana. Aetna shares were down 4.6 per cent at $114.72.
PepsiCo's shares rose 1.5 per cent to $107.51 after the company reported a better-than-expected second-quarter profit and raised its full-year profit forecast.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.19-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.07-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 34 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 58 new highs and 21 new lows.