NEW YORK — Serious doubts about the health of the job market and the pace of the economic recovery put markets on edge Wednesday.
Stocks fell after payroll processor ADP said companies added 179,000 new jobs in April, fewer than economists had expected. That raised worries about what the government’s monthly jobs report for April will reveal when it’s released Friday.
In a separate report, the Institute for Supply Management said its service-sector index rose at the slowest pace in eight months in April, as many companies express concerns about higher food and gas prices.
The U.S. service industry includes nearly everything that isn’t manufacturing — including hospitals, software developers, financial firms and mining companies. It employs about 90 percent of the U.S. workforce, so signs of a slowdown in the service-sector index have implications for the overall economy.
“I think we’re getting indications that (the U.S. economy) is not that healthy,” said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity-research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.
Even so, the broader markets are up 6 percent to 10 percent for the year.
Stronger-than-expected earnings reports led to a market rally that started in mid-April. Now that earnings season is coming to an end, job reports are most likely to sway markets over the next two days. The Labor Department will release its weekly look at first-time applications for unemployment benefits today, followed by the closely watched monthly labor-market report Friday.
Economists forecast that employers added 185,000 workers in April. The unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.8 percent.
If the numbers fall short, experts say the broader markets could fall further.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 83.93 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 12,723.58 on Wednesday. The average of 30 large companies is still up 10 percent for the year.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 9.30 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,347.32. It remains up 7 percent for the year.
The Nasdaq composite index fell 13.39, or 0.5 percent, to 2,828.23. It’s up 6.6 percent this year.
