US stocks close lower after volatile late swings to snap massive 2-day rally.

The US stock market retreated from a two-day rally in the last minutes of the trading day.

The stock market had fallen for much of the day, but rebounded at the end of the day, only to fall back again by the close. The S&P 500's energy sector rose after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it will cut production.

The recent bounce can probably be attributed to deeply oversold conditions and a few positive items on the Fed 'pivot' narrative, including a large decrease in US job openings.

The bar for a true Fed 'pivot' remains much higher and there are still few signs that core inflation is easing enough for the Fed to get comfortable.

At the close of business on Wednesday, the US indexes stood at the following location.

• S&P 500: 3,783.28, down 0.20%

• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 30,273.87, down 0.14% (42.45 points)

• Nasdaq Composite: 11,148.64, down 0.25%

Employers in the private sector increased payrolls by 208,000 in September, slightly above the Econoday consensus estimate. Ahead of Friday's non-farm report from the US government, the report was the second under the new methodology from Automatic Data Processing.

"We remain cautiously positioned, as we have for much of this year, with a smaller allocation than normal to stocks and larger allocation than normal to high-quality bonds and global infrastructure," Bill Merz told Insider.

We don't see signs of a Fed pivot until inflation falls considerably. The Cleveland Fed's trimmed meanCPI and the Atlanta Fed's stickyCPI are both rising, indicating that inflation could take some time to come down.

There are other things happening today.

Commodities and bonds are included.