Stock market today: Wall Street loses ground ahead of key reports on the job market
By Damian J. Troise And Alex Veiga, The Associated Press on December 4, 2023.
NEW YORK – Stocks slipped on Wall Street ahead of some key reports this week on the job market that might provide more insight into the Federal Reserve’s thinking about interest rates. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% Monday. The index is coming off its best month in more than a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 41 points, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.8%. Alaska Airlines slumped after it said it would buy Hawaiian Airlines. Spotify jumped after announcing its third round of layoffs this year. Treasury yields were higher and crude oil prices edged lower. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Stocks slipped on Wall Street Monday ahead of some key reports this week on the job market that might provide more insight into the Federal Reserve’s thinking about interest rates. The S&P 500 was off 0.7%. The index is coming off its best month in more than a year, and reached its highest level in more than a year on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 86 points, or 0.2%, to 36,157 as of 2:24 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite fell 1.1%. Treasury yields were higher, putting some pressure on stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 4.29% from 4.21%. Technology and communication services companies were the biggest weights on the market. Microsoft fell 1.7%, Nvidia slid 3.2%, Meta Platforms shed 2.2% and Google parent Alphabet was 2.6% lower. Alaska Air Group slumped 15.1% after announcing it will buy Hawaiian Airlines in a $1.9 billion deal, a tie-up that would test the Biden administration as it fights consolidation in the airline sector. Spotify surged 8% after announcing its third round of layoffs this year. Uber gained 3.3% after the ride-hailing service was named to join the S&P 500 index. U.S. crude oil prices fell 1.3%. Oil prices have been slipping recently, helping ease pressure on inflation. Markets were mixed in Europe and Asia. Wall Street is coming off a solid week and a strong November on hopes that inflation is easing enough to allow the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates. Investors are also hoping that the economy remains strong enough to avoid a recession. Investors will get several key updates on the economy this week, including reports on the services sector and the jobs market. The Institute for Supply Management will release its November report on the services sector on Tuesday. The sector is a key component in the U.S. economy and accounts for the majority of the nation’s jobs. The report could provide more insight into consumer spending and the jobs market. Wall Street will get several reports this week that focus on the broader employment picture in the U.S. The government will release its October update on job openings on Tuesday and a weekly report on applications for unemployment benefits on Thursday. Investors will be closely watching the government’s monthly jobs report for November, which is on Friday. Analysts polled by FactSet expect U.S. employers to have added 175,000 jobs last month. They forecast that the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.9%. The labor market has remained strong in the U.S. even as the Fed has raised interest rates sharply in order to fight inflation by slowing the entire economy. Inflation has been falling since the middle of 2022. The central bank paused raising rates after its most recent increase in late July. Wall Street expects rates to remain steady into early 2024, when the Fed could begin cutting interest rates back from their highest level in two decades. The Fed’s next decision on rates will follow the close of their next two-day meeting on Dec. 13. 19-18
