US stocks wobble despite rate cuts

New York - US stocks wobbled around the breakeven line Thursday, as rate cuts in both China and Europe failed to ignite the market.

The European Central Bank cut its deposit rate to 0 percent from 0.25 percent, the lowest in history, Xinhua reported.

The People's Bank of China cut its interest rates, lowering the benchmark lending rate by 31 basis points and the benchmark deposit rate by 25 basis points.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England launched another round of quantitative easing, adding 50 billion euros to its asset purchase programme.

These steps gave world markets a boost at the beginning, but soon waned amid concerns about the global economy.

In the US, the ADP National Employment Report released Thursday showed that the private sector added 176,000 new jobs last month.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that applications for jobless benefits decreased by 14,000 in the week ended June 30 to 374,000, the fewest since mid May.

However, investors are still cautious before the government releases its June employment report Friday, trying to get a bigger picture of the country's jobs market.

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 31.34 points, or 0.24 percent, to 12,912.48.

The Standard & Poor's 500 was down 3.60 points, or 0.26 percent, to 1,370.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 5.41 points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,981.49.