Stocks Rise Pre-Bell as Traders Parse Nvidia's Earnings, Await September Jobs Report

07:26 AM EST, 11/20/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity markets were tracking in the green before the opening bell Thursday as investors assess tech bellwether Nvidia's (NVDA) latest quarterly results and await the delayed national employment situation report for September.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.5% and the Nasdaq added 1.6% in premarket activity. The indexes finished Wednesday higher, with the S&P 500 snapping a four-day losing streak.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) jumped 4.8% pre-bell as the chipmaking giant reported fiscal third-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street's estimates, buoyed by continuous demand for artificial intelligence. "We believe (Nvidia (NVDA)) has significant additional growth and stock upside potential," Truist Securities said in a Thursday client note.

The nonfarm payrolls report for September is scheduled to be released at 8:30 am ET. The data was delayed from its original release in October due to the record-long federal government shutdown, which ended last week. Government data is expected to show that the US economy added 54,000 jobs in September, compared with a 22,000 gain reported for August, according to a Bloomberg poll.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday it will not publish an October employment report.

"Establishment survey data from the Current Employment Statistics survey for October 2025 will be published with the November 2025 data," according to an update by the BLS on its website. "Household survey data from the Current Population Survey could not be collected for the October 2025 reference period due to a lapse in appropriations."

Traders also evaluated minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting that indicated a growing divide among policymakers. Officials offered "strongly differing views" regarding the central bank's interest rate decision in December, minutes of the October meeting showed Wednesday.

The probability that the Fed will cut rates by another quarter percentage point next month stood at 32% on Thursday, with a 68% chance of a no-change scenario, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

"The minutes to the late-October Federal Open Market Committee meeting made clear the chasm between those supporting near-term rate cuts and those favoring a move to the sidelines," Oxford Economics said in remarks emailed to MT Newswires on Thursday. "Oxford Economics' view is that the divided committee will opt to pause in December."

Treasury yields were up in premarket action, with the two-year rate increasing 1.7 basis points to 3.62% and the 10-year rate moving 1.5 basis points higher to 4.15%.

Thursday's economic calendar also has the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for November at 8:30 am, followed by the existing home sales report for October at 10 am. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack speaks at 8:45 am, while Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee is slated to speak at 1:40 pm.

Palo Alto Networks (PANW) dropped 3.7% early Thursday as the cybersecurity firm agreed to acquire cloud-native observability platform provider Chronosphere in a deal worth $3.35 billion and lifted its full-year outlook.

Walmart (WMT) , Jacobs Solutions (J) , Warner Music Group (WMG) and Bath & Body Works (BBWI) report their latest financial results before the bell, among others. Intuit (INTU), Ross Stores (ROST) and Veeva Systems (VEEV) release their earnings after the markets close.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil inclined 0.9% to $59.98 a barrel before the open. US commercial crude stockpiles shrank more than projected last week, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

Gold slipped 0.4% to $4,066 per troy ounce, while bitcoin advanced nearly 3% to $91,848.

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