A 1.4% decline in Amazon.com shares weighed on the S&P 500, limiting its advance.With the November payrolls report scheduled after the Fed’s December meeting due to the extended government shutdown, market participants have looked to secondary indicators that presented a mixed picture of the labor market as the government data backlog slowly clears. A Labor Department report showed that initial unemployment claims fell to the lowest level in more than three years, although analysts suggested the decline could be partly due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
A separate report from the Chicago Fed put the unemployment rate at nearly 4.4% in November. Markets are pricing in an 87% chance that the central bank will cut rates by 25 basis points this month, compared to a 68.6% chance a month ago, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool. “Everyone is waiting to see what the Fed thinks with the data they’ve seen coming in because (Fed Chairman Jerome) Powell’s latest comments were a little on the hawkish side, but cuts are totally expected,” said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“The short of it is that the gold standard is payroll, and we just don’t have a current figure for that, so that will really move the needle one way or the other on future interest rate policy paths.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 31.96 points, or 0.07%, to 47,850.94, the S&P 500 gained 7.40 points, or 0.11%, to 6,857.12 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 51.04 points, or 0.22%, to 23,505.14. A delayed report from the Commerce Department showed factory orders rose 0.2%, less than the 0.5% estimate, after a downwardly revised 1.3% increase in August as tariffs on manufacturers were curbed.
Dow component Salesforce rose 3.7% after the company increased its fiscal 2026 revenue and adjusted profit forecasts, anticipating growth of its artificial intelligence platform due to strong business demand. Also on the upside, Meta Platforms rose 3.4% in one of the biggest boosts for the S&P after a Bloomberg report said the Facebook parent company was planning cuts of up to 30% to its Metaverse budget. Meanwhile, Amazon fell among the top hurdles for the S&P index after the e-commerce company said it was in talks with the US Postal Service about their future relationship and is considering its options before the contract expires next year.
The consumer staples index was one of the worst performing of the 11 major S&P sectors, pressured by a 4.6% decline in Kroger after the supermarket chain cut its annual sales forecasts and missed quarterly revenue estimates. In contrast, Dollar General rose 14% after the discount retailer raised its annual profit forecast. Snowflake fell 11.4% after the cloud data analytics company’s fourth-quarter product revenue forecast fell short of high investor expectations for stronger growth. Hormel Foods advanced 3.8% after peanut butter maker Skippy forecast annual profit above expectations.Advancing issues outpaced declining issues by a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.39-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 31 new 52-week highs and five new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite posted 114 new highs and 52 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 15.13 billion shares, compared to the full-session average of 17.98 billion over the past 20 trading days.
#stocks #flat #buoyed #Fed #hopes #dragged #Amazon