US stocks retreat from records after lackluster jobs data

Wall Street stocks pulled back from records early Wednesday following lackluster US jobs data, despite the first approval of a Covid-19 vaccine by a western country.

Britain cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine beginning next week, a major step in efforts to move the global economy beyond the coronavirus pandemic.

Optimism about vaccines has propelled US stocks to records in recent sessions, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.3 percent at 29,741.57.

About 20 minutes into trading, the broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.2 percent to 3,654.16, while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite index tumbled 0.9 percent to 12,243.58.

Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq had ended at records Tuesday.

Payroll services firm ADP said private jobs rose 307,000 last month, seasonally adjusted, with firms of all sizes showing increases, though that gain lagged the expected level and was slower than October's upwardly revised gain of 404,000.

The figures come ahead of Friday's closely-watched Labor Department jobs report.

Among individual companies, Slack Technologies fell 3.2 percent after it agreed to be acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion, giving the business software giant a broader array of tools as the pandemic fuels a remote work trend.

Salesforce dropped 9.2 per cent.

Pfizer shares jumped 3.3 per cent following the British announcement about its coronavirus vaccine. Chief Executive Albert Bourla called the announcement a "historic moment in the fight against Covid-19."