Major stock indexes began on a high at the open resulting from an optimistic employment index released before the bell by Automatic Data Processing. Since the open, however, all three U.S. indexes have fallen back.

With little other data to chew on, markets are being driven by news that Bank of America will require $34 billion in capital to relieve balance street woes. 

BofA is considering selling an $8 billion stake to China Construction Bank, which has given some investors confidence that the bank can meet the demands of the Stress Tests, the results of which are being made public Thursday afternoon. Shares in BofA were up 7.5% at 11:30 am.

After closing at 8410 on Tuesday, the Dow shot to 8499 at the open, but by 11:30 am such gains were pared back to 8417, up just 0.08% on the day. Similarly, the S&P has been volatile since gains prior to the bell, and at 11:30 it was up 0.33% points to 906.7.

Unlike the Dow and S&P, the Nasqaq failed to stay positive after its early gains. It reached a high 1768 at the open but then by 11:30 it was trading down 0.83% at 1739.

Data Recap:

The only major bit of data to hit markets this morning was the ADP Private Employment report, which saw fewer jobs lost than anticipated. ADP reported that 491,000 private jobs were lost in April, against expectations that the figure would exceed -600k.

“On balance, this report has put some upside risk to the nonfarm payroll report out on Friday,” said economics strategist Ian Pollick from TD Securities. “The improvement relative to last month is encouraging, and aligns nicely with other labor market data we have been seeing,” he added.

Losses were somewhat equally split between the service-sector and the goods-manufacturers. Service sector jobs fell by 229,000 in the month, while the goods-producing sector saw 262,000 vanish.

Medium-sized business bore the brunt of the losses in April. Large businesses (500+ workers) saw employment drop by 77,000 in April, while medium-size businesses saw 231,000 jobs vanish, and small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) lost 183,000 jobs.

“The employment declines among medium- and small-size businesses indicate that the recession continues to spread beyond manufacturing and housing-related activities to almost every area of the economy,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisors.

Still, even with losses broadening throughout the economy, April's loss was the smallest monthly job cut in five months.