U.S. Stocks Lacked Direction After Payrolls Reports

Barry Adams
16 Dec, 2025
New York City

U.S. stock market indexes faced headwinds for the second consecutive session this week amid market rotation away from high-priced technology stocks. 

The S&P 500 index decreased 0.5%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite inched lower 0.8%. 

Investors remained net sellers of technology stocks linked to artificial intelligence and sought value in industrial and cyclical stocks ahead of the release of delayed economic data releases. 

 

U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Reports Painted Mixed Picture

November's nonfarm payrolls advanced 64,000, and the jobless rate increased to a four-year high of 4.5%, while average hourly earnings edged up 3.5% from a year ago to $36.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Employers expanded payrolls at a sharply lower rate than the 119,000 increase in September, amid the continued pullback by private businesses in manufacturing, retail, and logistics industries. 

Employment rose in health care by 46,000 and construction by 28,000 in November, while the federal government continued to lose jobs by 6,000.

In November, both the unemployment rate, at 4.6%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.8 million, were little changed from September. 

These measures are higher than last November, when the jobless rate was 4.2%, and the number of unemployed people was 7.1 million.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics canceled the October Employment Situation report because of the federal government shutdown and the agency's inability to collect retroactive data with sufficient reliability. 

In November, both the labor force participation rate of 62.5% and the employment-population ratio of 59.6% were little changed from September, and these measures showed little or no change over the year. 

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised down by 22,000, from a loss of 4,000 to a loss of 26,000, and the change for September was revised down by 11,000, from an increase of 119,000 to 108,000. 

With these revisions, employment in August and September combined is 33,000 lower than previously reported. 

Due to the recent federal government shutdown, this is the first publication of October data, and thus there are no revisions for October this month.

The government agency estimated a loss of 105,000 jobs in October, meeting the expectations of a decline in payrolls after they expanded sharply by 108,000 in September. 

The October decline was the third in the last six months, where payrolls shrank, and the employment level has shown little net change since April. 

October's retail ad food services sales advanced at a slower pace of 3.5%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nonstore sales growth accelerated to 9% from 6%, and food services and drinking place sales growth slowed to 4.1% from 6.7% in September, respectively. 

 

U.S. Movers 

The Tollbooth Strategy Index, S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite closed down on Monday, pressured by the weakness in key technology stocks. 

Nvidia Corp. edged up 0.8%, Broadcom dropped 6%, Alphabet Inc. eased 0.4%, Apple Inc. decreased 1.5%, Meta Platforms gained 0.6%, and Oracle Corp. declined 2.7%. 

General Electric Co. gained 0.4% to $300.98, GE Vernova edged up 1.4% to $681.35, and GE HealthCare Technologies inched up 0.8% to $84.45.