Stocks slip in slow '14 start

NEW YORK - The stock market stumbled Wednesday as investors waited for the government's jobs report this week and the beginning of quarterly earnings releases from corporate America.

Traders put aside a positive report that showed private employers created more jobs in December than economists had expected. The market had a muted reaction to the minutes from the Federal Reserve's mid-December policy meeting.

Wednesday's declines extend what has been a muddled start to 2014. Both the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index are down a little less than 1 percent after five days of trading.

The tough start should be taken in context of last year's exceptional performance, when the S&P 500 surged almost 30 percent.

After bidding up stock prices to record levels last year, investors are ready to see if their bets are going to pay off. Big, publicly traded U.S. companies will start reporting their quarterly financial results Thursday.

A private survey released Wednesday showed U.S. businesses added the most jobs in a year in December, powered by a big gain in construction work. Payroll processor ADP said companies added 238,000 jobs in December, better than the 200,000 economists predicted.

The ADP data sets the stage for Friday's government jobs report. Investors expect that the U.S. economy created 190,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate remained steady at 7 percent.

The Dow lost 68.20 points, or 0.41 percent, to 16,462.74. The losses erased more than half of the 105-point gain the index had on Tuesday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.39 points, or 0.02 percent, to 1,837.49 and the Nasdaq composite rose 12.43 points, or 0.30 percent, to 4,165.61.

S&P Capital IQ's Alec Young said he expected the stock market would "churn" at these levels into next week, once investors have earnings and Friday's jobs report to analyze.

Ford rose 16 cents, or 1 percent, to $15.54 after CEO Alan Mulally said he would not leave to run Microsoft. Mulally was considered a top candidate for the position, having led the turnaround for Ford.

Forest Labs jumped $10.54, or 18 percent, to $69.30 after the company said it would buy Aptalis, which specializes in treatments for gastrointestinal problems and cystic fibrosis, for $2.9 billion in cash.

J.C. Penney Co. fell 10 percent, to $7.37, after raising doubts about its turnaround by releasing a statement on holiday results that did not include sales data it had provided for previous months.