US shares pare gains ahead of jobs report

NEW YORK—US equity markets gave up early gains Thursday as investors turned cautious ahead of the August jobs market report, which could weigh heavily the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest rate decision.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 23.38 points (0.14 percent) at 16,374.76.

The S&P 500 gained 2.27 (0.12 percent) at 1,951.13, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 16.48 (0.35 percent) to 4,733.50.

Index gains topped 1 percent in morning trade helped by a reasonably strong report on the US economy’s services sector in August, but selling intensified in the afternoon led by major tech stocks.

The late selloff came despite economists predicting a middling jobs report on Friday that would not provide the Fed with any clear course of action on rates.

The China downturn, and its impact on the global economy, has many now expecting that the Fed will refrain from undertaking its first rate increase since 2006 when it meets in 13 days.

Among major losers, Apple fell 1.75 percent, Facebook 1.9 percent, Amazon 1.1 percent and Netflix, facing a tough new challenge from streaming video rival Hulu, shed 4.2 percent.

Its IPO luster rubbing off, shares of GoPro, the action camera maker, sank 6.4 percent.

Luxury electric car maker Tesla fell 0.9 percent after founder Elon Musk said it expected to bring its more “economic” model 3, a $35,000 sedan, to market in two years.

Major gainers included Dow Chemical (+1.0 percent), Intel (+1.7 percent) and Visa (+1.1 percent).

B&G Foods jumped 11.7 percent after the announcement that it would buy two iconic canned and frozen vegetable brands, Green Giant and Le Sueur, from General Mills for $765 million.

General Mills shares climbed 1.4 percent.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.17 percent from 2.19 percent Wednesday, while the 30-year slipped to 2.94 percent from 2.97 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.