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.
