Dow falls more than 150 points in late-morning trade as losses pick up steam

The U.S. stock market late-morning Wednesday was trading near sessions lows as investors fought for a reason to buy stocks, and as investors awaited key data on employment. Most recently, the Dow was down 156 points, or 0.6%, at 25,650, while S&P 500 index fell 0.6% at 2,773, while the Nasdaq Composite Index retreated 0.8% at 7,518. Declines have come as there has been no fresh progress on negotiations between the U.S. and China on trade. Declines are setting up the worst weekly drop for stocks in 2019. Moreover, a report Wednesday showed the U.S. posted its widest monthly trade gap since 2008 in December and a record annual deficit in goods as economic growth underpinned higher spending by consumers and businesses. On top of that, private-sector labor from ADP showed that the U.S. added 183,000 jobs in February, a smaller level than expected. The report comes ahead of the more closely followed nonfarm-payroll report due to be released Friday. Investors also are awaiting the latest policy update from the European Central Bank on Thursday, as global growth in the region slows.

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