Four of the 11 major S&P sectors were trading higher, with the technology index leading gains, as traders bought into stocks perceived to be resilient at a time when billions of people globally are still locked indoors.

The blue-chip Dow Jones index came under pressure from declines in oil giant Chevron Corp as crude prices fell. The S&P 500 energy sub-index dropped 2.2%.

Data on Wednesday showed US private employers laid off a record 20.2 million workers in April, setting up the overall labor market for historic job losses last month.

"We knew this was going to be bad, so it matches the jobless claims. A lot of the bad news for April is pretty much factored in," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"But markets are looking at a potential recovery here, we've got a lot of states opening up. Businesses are starting to get going again, but the question is, is it too fast?"

At 11:38 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.97 points, or 0.01%, at 23,881.12, the S&P 500 was up 3.50 points, or 0.12%, at 2,871.94 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 91.97 points, or 1.04%, at 8,901.09.

Copyright Reuters, 2020