Wall Street slowed after Tuesday's rally, as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed Congress on the state of the economy and the Bear bailout.
The testimony kicked off with Bernanke saying the U.S. economy may contract slightly in the first half of 2008, with little, if any, growth for the year as downside risks remain. Bernanke also said that the failure of Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ) could have provoked chaos in the credit markets, which remain stressed, and noted the weak dollar is making inflation a concern.
The greenback was at $1.56 against the euro Wednesday, slightly weaker than Tuesday. Crude was down 22 cents to $100.76 a barrel.
In corporate news, Best Buy (nyse: BBY - news - people ) was trading 2% higher, after beating Wall Street's fourth-quarter earnings estimates, despite a 3% decline attributed to slower post-holiday traffic.
Dow component Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) was hurting in early trading after the pharmaceutical firm said it ended a late-stage study of its melanoma treatment, after the drug failed to show better efficacy than standard chemotherapy.
Shares of Pfizer fell less than 1%
Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ) saw the heaviest trading among the Dow's 30 components, up 2% as investors digested Bernanke's remarks on the U.S. economy and the financial sector.
ADP released its March employment survey, which showed a surprising rise of 8,000 private sector jobs for the months, compared with estimates of a loss of 30,000 jobs after February's fall of 23,000. Still, investors were barely swayed by the news, putting far more weight on Friday's jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department, which is expected to show a decline of 30,000 jobs on non-farm payrolls
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