Equities Fall Intraday as Markets Weigh Jobs Data; Nvidia Drops

02:18 PM EST, 11/20/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were lower intraday as a long-awaited labor market report showed the unemployment rate at the highest level since 2021, while Nvidia (NVDA) reversed its post-earnings rally.

The Nasdaq Composite was down 1% at 22,334.2 after midday Thursday, while the S&P 500 fell 0.7% to 6,596. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.4% to 45,959.7. Among sectors, technology saw the biggest drop, while consumer staples paced the gainers.

In economic news, total nonfarm payrolls in the US rose by 119,000 in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, more than the 51,000 increase expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

However, the unemployment rate edged up to 4.4%, the highest since October 2021, while Wall Street expected it to hold steady at 4.3%.

The report, which comes less than a month before the Federal Reserve's next monetary policy meeting, was delayed by nearly seven weeks due to the record-long federal government shutdown, which ended last week.

"The data suggest that the labor market was continuing to slow as the autumn began, but it wasn't ringing any 'we're behind the curve' alarm bells at the Fed," BMO said in a Thursday report. "And the big question for the central bank is: What has happened in the labor market since?"

The probability that the Federal Open Market Committee will lower interest rates by 25 basis points next month increased to 40% on Thursday from 30% on Wednesday, according to the CME FedWatch tool. The odds of rates remaining unchanged fell to 60% from 70%.

On Wednesday, minutes of the Fed's October meeting showed that monetary policymakers offered "strongly differing views" regarding the FOMC's interest rate decision for December, underscoring a growing divide among policymakers.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares were down 2%, among the steepest declines on the Dow. Shares of the technology bellwether opened higher on Thursday after the company reported strong quarterly results late Wednesday, but the rally lost steam by midday.

Nvidia's (NVDA) results and solid outlook indicate continuing artificial intelligence boom, but there are risks including customer concentration and geopolitics, Saxo Bank said in a report on Thursday.

"A large part of Nvidia's (NVDA) data center revenue still comes from a handful of hyperscale buyers and leading AI labs," Ruben Dalfovo, investment strategist at Saxo, wrote. "If any of them delay projects, press harder on pricing or shift more work toward in-house accelerators, Nvidia's (NVDA) growth rate could slow even if the wider AI trend stays healthy."

US Treasury yields were lower intraday, with the 10-year rate down 2.5 basis points at 4.11% and the two-year rate dropping four basis points to 3.56%.

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said that easing monetary policy to support the labor market "risks prolonging" the period of already-high inflation.

"Financial conditions are quite accommodative today, reflecting recent gains in equity prices and easy credit conditions," Hammack said. "Easing policy in this environment could support risky lending."

Separately, Fed Governor Michael Barr said policymakers "need to be careful and cautious now" about interest rates, with inflation still running a full percentage point above the FOMC's 2% objective, Bloomberg News reported.

Elsewhere in the corporate world, Palo Alto Networks (PANW) shares were down 7.4% intraday Thursday. The cybersecurity company late Wednesday increased its full-year outlook after recording better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results. Palo Alto agreed to acquire cloud-native observability platform provider Chronosphere in a deal worth $3.35 billion.

Walmart (WMT) was the best performer on the Dow and the S&P 500 intraday Thursday, up 5.9%, as the retail giant raised its full-year outlook after its fiscal third-quarter results topped the Street's estimates.

Intuit (INTU), Ross Stores (ROST) and Veeva Systems (VEEV) are scheduled to report after the closing bell Thursday.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 0.5% at $58.41 a barrel intraday.

Gold was down 0.5% at $4,061.30 per troy ounce, while silver decreased 1.1% to $50.28 per ounce.

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