Wall Street mostly flat after jobs data signal softening labor market, Pfizer drops 3.3%

Wall Street was mostly flat on Tuesday as investors digested a jobs report that pointed to a softening labor market.

As of 10 A.M. Eastern Time, market movement was mixed. The S&P 500 was virtually flat, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.3% higher.

Economic Data

The Labor Department released data showed US job growth rebounded in November after a decline in non-farm payrolls in October, which was attributed to government spending cuts.

However, the underlying health of the labor market appeared to be weakening, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.6% in November.

This deceleration comes against a backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty, particularly stemming from President Donald Trump's aggressive trade policies.

Investors are worried that the weaker labor market is slowing down the US economy.

“The US economy was expected to slow down this year due to fall out from Trump tariffs and the uncertainty it triggered. But after the initial mild contraction in Q1 the economy bounced back smartly in Q2 with 3.8% growth. Around 2% growth is achievable this year assisted by massive AI investment,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited. “Better-than-expected GDP growth and corporate earnings have delivered impressive stock market returns with S&P 500 and Nasdaq delivering 16.15% and 19.59 % returns respectively.”

In a separate report, a key underlying measure of strength for revenue at US retailers showed more growth in October than the markets had expected.

Investors are now turning their attention to the upcoming consumer inflation report for November, scheduled for release on Thursday.

A preliminary report from S&P Global suggested that price pressures are building sharply. It indicated that average selling prices for businesses climbed at one of the fastest rates since the middle of 2022.

S&P Global also noted that growth for overall business activity slowed to its weakest level since June.

In the bond market, yields eased slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.16% from 4.18% late on Monday, while the 2-year yield dropped to 3.48% from 3.51%.

Key Stock Movers

Shares of Oracle rose 1% and Broadcom added 0.7%.

CoreWeave, a company focused on renting access to high-end AI chips, fell 2.4%.

Pfizer stock dropped 3.3% after the pharmaceutical giant provided a 2026 profit forecast that fell below Wall Street's expectations.

Kraft Heinz stock gained 0.6% after the firm announced that Steve Cahillane, who was most recently CEO of Kellanova, will join as CEO next month.

Bullion Market

Gold prices surged on Tuesday as the US dollar fell to a two-month low on Tuesday.

As of 09:07 A.M. ET (14:07 GMT), spot gold gained 0.4% to $4,316.67 per ounce. US gold futures were up 0.3% at $4,347.10.

In other metals, spot silver fell 0.6% to $63.58 an ounce, platinum added 2.3% to $1,824.50, and palladium edged 0.8% up to $1,580.22.