S&P 500 ekes out slight gain as investors await Fed decision
Affected assets and topics
Why it matters
U.S. stocks experienced minimal changes with the S&P 500 slightly gaining as investors await the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates. A drop in jobless claims suggests a stronger labor market, but mixed economic signals lead to uncertainty about the Fed's next move, with a high probability of a rate cut. Notable stock movements included declines in Amazon and Kroger, while Salesforce saw a significant increase after raising its forecasts.
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Expected market reaction
Market impact analysis based on neutral sentiment with 77% confidence.
Evidence trail
Evidence
AI provenance
Technical identifiers
- Provider tag
- openai-gpt-4o-mini
- Analysis version
- openai-gpt-4o-mini
- Article id
- 18594
Original source
STORY: U.S stocks were little changed at the end of trading on Thursday, with the Dow closing slightly lower, the S&P 500 rising a tenth of one percent and the Nasdaq adding two tenths of a percent.Investors weighed a report from the Labor Department that showed initial jobless claims dropped to their lowest level in more than three years, potentially reducing the odds of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week.But in the absence of the November jobs report, which was delayed by the government shutdown, some economists said Fed officials could lean more on the ADP and Revelio Labs reports, which offered a weaker picture of the labor market.Chris Konstantinos of RiverFront Investment Group says he expects the Fed to cut rates next week.“So in terms of what I think the Fed will do, I do believe they’re going to cut interest rates again next week. And I think it’s because even though we’re getting a lot of crosscurrents in the employment data, when you take a step back, the mosaic that emerges is that the labor market is indeed weakening. And I think the Fed is pretty laser focused on maintaining full employment without overheating the job market.”Markets are now pricing in an 87% chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points next week, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.Stocks on the move Thursday included Amazon, which dragged on the S&P 500 with shares falling nearly one and a half percent.Shares of Salesforce climbed more than three and a half percent after the company raised its revenue and profit forecasts, anticipating demand for its artificial intelligence agent platform.And shares of Kroger fell more than four and a half percent after the supermarket chain narrowed its annual sales forecast and missed quarterly sales estimates.
Read the full article on Yahoo Finance
Original article published by Yahoo Finance on December 5, 2025. Analysis and insights provided by AnalystMarkets AI.