The broader market slumped from Tuesday's record gains as stimulus talks in Washington appeared to reach another impasse. Both the Dow and S&P 500 slipped lower, while the Nasdaq posted its worst performance since October as tech shares underperformed. Despite the Congressional roadblock, sentiment remains optimistic towards stimulus bill passing by late-December.

Meanwhile, job openings unexpectedly rose in October to a three-month high of 6.6652 million, according to the Labor Department's new report on Wednesday. The greater-than-expected increase outshined September's upwardly revised 6.494 million. However, the number of layoffs and discharges during the period climbed to 1.68 million, up from September's 1.44 million. That number was impacted in October by the loss of more temporary 2020 Census workers employed by the U.S. federal government.

Here's how the market settled for the mid-week:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -0.79% or -29.43 points to 3,672.82

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -0.35% or -105.07 points to 30,068.81

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -1.94% or -243.82 points to 12,338.95

For Stocks, DoorDash (DASH  ) opened at $182 per share and closing nearly 85% above its blockbuster initial public offering price of $102 per share. At that share price, DoorDash commands a market valuation of roughly $60.2 billion. DoorDash's debut pressured much of the tech sector, with semiconductors taking the brunt of the hit; VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH  ) closed 3.1% lower. Facebook (FB  ) shares fell after two antitrust lawsuits were raised against the social media giant. Tesla (TSLA  ) had its worst performance since September on Wednesday, but has increased over 60% since mid-November ahead of its S&P inclusion.

For Sector Performance, most sectors on the S&P ended Wednesday's session in negative territory as traders digested recent gains against near-term outlooks. Only Energy (XLE  ), Industrials (XLI  ) and Materials (XLB  ) made slight gains, while Information Technology (XLK  ) and Communication Services (XLC  ) fell over 1%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) made slight gains on Wednesday as the broader market sell-off buoyed the greenback. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, rose 0.2% in mid-day trading to 91.067. Gold (GLD  ) prices slumped as continued vaccine optimism raised sentiment for a smoother economic recovery in the medium-term. Spot gold declined 2.4% to $1,827.26 per ounce, while gold futures settled 1.9% lower at $1,838.50 per ounce. Crude oil futures left the session little changed as investors weighed recent recovery optimism against alarming increases in coronavirus infections heading into the year's end. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) rose 0.2% to $48.92 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) fell 0.2% lower at $45.52 per barrel.

For Thursday, market participants will turn their attention to fresh weekly jobless claims data as well as the Food and Drug Administration's meeting to evaluate the Pfizer (PFE  )-BioNTech (BNTX  ) vaccine.