Market Summary

Wall Street finished mostly lower on Wednesday following a disappointing reading out of the service sector. The Institute for Supply Management reported that the U.S. services sector rose to 50.5 last month from a reading of 49.8 in December, below analyst expectations. Futures turned lower and were never really able to recover past the break even mark in a choppy session.

The two day market rally ended as the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 26 points, or 0.3%, to 10,271 while the S&P 500 shed 6 points, or 0.6%, to 1,097. The Nasdaq was the lone winner, advancing before earnings from Cisco Systems, Inc (CSCO). The tech heavy index eked out a gain by nearly 1 point, or 0.04%, at 2,191.

Crude oil for March delivery ended 25 cents lower to settle at $76.98 on the NYMEX after the Energy Information Administration reported an increase of 2.3 million barrels in crude-oil inventories last week. Gold lost $6 to settle at $1,112 an ounce.

Gearing Up for Friday

Private employers reported the smallest payroll decline in nearly two years in January. ADP Employer Services showed the United States lost 22,000 private sector jobs last month, smaller than the 61,000 jobs lost in December and below economists’ forecasts of 30,000 jobs lost in January.

After shedding 85,000 jobs in December, the consensus for January is a net gain of 5,000 when the Labor Department releases the figures on Friday.

On the Corporate Front

After the bell, Cisco blew past analyst estimates in the past quarter as net income increased 23.2 percent, to $1.85 billion, or 40 cents a share after charges, from $1.5 billion, or 26 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. CSCO also saw a jump of 8 percent in revenue to $9.82 billion. The street had been expecting eps of 35 cents on revenue of $9.41 billion. The tech sector should rally in tomorrow’s premarket on these results.