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Stocks steady as rate-cut conviction runs high

Yahoo Finance•December 04, 2025 at 2:40 PM•Full Content
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Detected Companies & Sentiment

Salesforce, Inc.
"strongly positive"
9

Gist

Wall Street rallies on strong rate-cut expectations amid mixed economic data, with markets pricing in an 89% chance of a December Fed cut.

LLM Summary

U.S. stocks edged higher as traders grew increasingly confident in a December Federal Reserve rate cut, driven by soft ADP jobs data and dovish signals from potential new Fed leadership. Despite mixed labor market indicators, markets are focused on the upcoming PCE inflation report for confirmation. Meanwhile, earnings results showed mixed performance, with Salesforce rising on strong guidance while Snowflake fell despite a major AI partnership.

Full Article Content

Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq waver as Wall Street cements in rate-cut hopes

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Rian Howlett and Karen Friar

Updated Thu, December 4, 2025 at 10:39 PM GMT+8 2 min read

[SNOW

-8.54%](/quote/SNOW/ "SNOW")

* [^IXIC

+0.10%](/quote/%5EIXIC/ "^IXIC")

[YM=F

+0.11%](/quote/YM%3DF/ "YM=F")

[ES=F

+0.20%](/quote/ES%3DF/ "ES=F")

[NQ=F

+0.15%](/quote/NQ%3DF/ "NQ=F")

US stocks inched higher on Thursday as Wall Street digested fresh jobs data, with traders increasingly baking in expectations that the Federal Reserve will deliver a December rate cut.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) put on around 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also added nearly 0.2% on the heels of small closing gains for Wall Street stocks.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI)

===================================

47,950.73

+67.83

+(0.14%)

As of 9:40:21 AM EST. Market Open.

Wall Street is under growing conviction that the Fed will shift toward easing at its policy meeting next week, fueled by support from key officials and a lackluster run of economic data. Traders are pricing in an 89% probability of a rate cut, per CME FedWatch, after a softer-than-expected ADP reading on private employment.

Speculation that Kevin Hassett will replace Jerome Powell as Fed chair is playing into expectations for lower rates. The White House's top economic advisor is seen as likely to usher in a more-dovish era at the Fed, given his backer President Trump's aggressive campaign for rapid cuts. But markets are said to be doubtful about Hassett, and bond investors have reportedly voiced concerns to the US Treasury.

Further clues to the state of the labor market came Thursday, with jobless claims unexpectedly falling but another report finding last month was the worst November for corporate layoffs in three years. Markets are now starting to count down to Friday's release of the delayed September PCE reading on consumer prices — the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation — to put rate-cut optimism to a tougher test.

With earnings season in its final stretch, Salesforce (CRM) shares popped after the business software maker posted a raised outlook that both topped analyst expectations. Meanwhile, Snowflake (SNOW) stock tumbled after the AI data cloud provider's revenue guidance fell short, even as it deepened its partnership with Anthropic (ANTH.PVT).

Results from retailers Dollar General (DG) and Kroger (KR) could shed light on the resilience of the consumer, while Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) earnings are also on the docket on Thursday.