US equities open lower on Fed rate-hike expectations

Major US equity indices opened mildly lower on Wednesday as a slightly better-than-expected ADP report on private-sector employment seems to have raised expectations of a yet another stronger official employment report on Friday.

According to the ADP report, the US economy added 177,000 private-sector jobs in August as compared to 175,000 estimated and prior month’s 194,000 (revised higher from 179,000). 

At the time of writing, Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 39 points to 18,415 while the broader index, S&P 500, was down around 5 points to 2,171. Tech heavy, Nasdaq edged lower by 12 points to 5,210.

Market participants will remain focused on Friday's nonfarm-payrolls report, which has been traditionally known to generate substantial volatility across global financial markets and would now be watched to gauge the timing of next Fed rate-hike action. A strong headline number would add reasons for the Federal Reserve to go ahead and raise interest rates, as early as in September, and is likely to weigh on riskier asset class - like equities.