NEW YORK — There was more than one story line playing out in the stock market Wednesday.
The market wavered between gains and losses for much of the day, yanked around by technical problems, an ambiguous statement from the Federal Reserve, and mixed reports on U.S. companies that made it difficult to decipher just where the economy is headed.
By the time it was all over, all the key indexes were down, their third straight day of losses.
The Dow Jones industrial average shed 32.55 points to 12,976.13. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell four points to 1,375.32. And the Nasdaq composite index lost 19.31 points to 2,920.21.
A look at the key developments Wednesday shows that for every hint that the economy is improving, another cropped up to indicate it isn’t:
• Chrysler, Volkswagen and Nissan reported strong sales in July — but General Motors and Ford faltered.
• Construction spending rose for the third month in a row, according to one closely watched report, but manufacturing activity shrank, according to another.
• The opening minutes of trading were chaotic for some companies, with their shares swinging wildly for no immediately apparent reason. Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, jumped 9 percent in early trading, and Harley-Davidson sank 12 percent, before stabilizing. The culprit was an unspecified problem at Knight Capital, one of the largest processors of stock trades.
“These have happened not once but a number of times, and unless they’re addressed, they’ll continue to happen,” said Matthew Rubin, director of investment strategy at Neuberger Berman in New York. “I think it’s one of many, many things that has rattled investors’ faith in the equity markets.”
• The Federal Reserve issued a statement Wednesday afternoon after wrapping up a two-day policy meeting, as is customary. But investors hoping for clarity were disappointed.
Investors’ reaction to the Fed statements can be a perverse equation. Some investors want the Fed to say that the economy is doing poorly — poorly enough to persuade the Fed to take more action to try to get it going again.
Instead, policymakers acknowledged that the economy has ebbed so far this year, but pledged merely to take further steps in the future if necessary.
Matt Ballew, chairman of Security Ballew Wealth Management in Jackson, Miss., thinks that only more-responsible spending policies will help.
“What the central banks can do from this point on is meaningless,” Ballew said. “They can make it worse, but they can’t make it better.”
