U.S. equities finished little changed on Thursday as investors balanced a soft batch of economic updates against rising confidence the Federal Reserve will cut rates next week. Gains in the broader market were capped by a drop in Amazon shares, which weighed on the S&P 500.
- S&P 500 gained 0.11%
- Nasdaq +0.23%
- Dow slipped 0.07%
With the November payrolls report delayed until after the Fed meeting due to the prolonged government shutdown, traders continued relying on secondary indicators to gauge labour momentum:
- Initial jobless claims unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in more than three years, though analysts warned the Thanksgiving holiday may have distorted the data;
- A separate estimate from the Chicago Fed suggested the unemployment rate held near 4.4% in November;
- Factory-orders data, delayed by the shutdown, showed a 0.2% rise—missing expectations—as tariffs continued to pressure manufacturers.
Corporate movers were mixed:
- Salesforce rallied after raising its FY26 revenue and profit outlook on strong AI-agent platform demand;
- Meta also supported the S&P 500 following reports the firm plans to cut up to 30% of its Metaverse budget;
- Amazon fell after revealing discussions with the U.S. Postal Service about the future of its delivery relationship ahead of contract expiry next year.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.