US Equity Indexes Rise, Treasury Yields Fall Amid Unexpected Drop in Private Payrolls

12:46 PM EST, 12/03/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes rose in midday trading on Wednesday as a surprise drop in private sector jobs sent government bond yields lower, which helped raise the odds of an interest rate cut next week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% to 47,797.7, the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% to 6,846.5, and the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.1% to 23,438.3.

Employment in the US private sector surprisingly fell in November, ADP, a payroll processing firm, said Wednesday. Jobs fell by 32,000, versus consensus for a 10,000 increase in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. October's gain in payrolls was revised up to 47,000 from 42,000.

Markets are pricing an 89% probability that the Federal Reserve will reduce its benchmark lending rate by a quarter percentage point on Dec. 10, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

US Treasury yields fell, with the two-year yield down two basis points to 3.50%. The 10-year yield leaned 1.9 basis points lower to 4.07%.

Energy and financials were sector leaders in midday trading. Technology led the decliners.

Netflix (NFLX) Co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings sold 375,470 shares of the company for about $40.7 million. Hastings, currently a director, has control over roughly 21.4 million common shares. Netflix (NFLX) slumped 5.4%, the worst performer on the Nasdaq.

Micron Technology (MU) has decided to exit what it calls "crucial" consumer business, including the sale of "crucial" consumer-branded products at key retailers, e-tailers, and distributors worldwide. Its shares dropped 2.7%, among the worst performers on the Nasdaq.

Multiple business segments at Microsoft (MSFT) reduced sales growth quotas for certain AI products after many missed targets during the fiscal year ended June, The Information reported Wednesday, citing two salespeople in Microsoft's (MSFT) Azure cloud unit. Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) fell 2%, among the Dow and Nasdaq's steepest declines.

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