Stocks Mostly Up Pre-Bell as Rate Cut Bets Strengthen After Latest Data

07:34 AM EST, 12/04/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity markets mostly edged higher before the opening bell Thursday amid growing expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next week following recent labor and economic data.

The S&P 500 was slightly in the green and the Dow Jones Industrial Average nudged up 0.1% in premarket activity, while the Nasdaq was down less than 0.1%. The indexes closed the previous trading session up, with the Dow recording its strongest finish since Nov. 12.

Private jobs in the US decreased by 32,000 last month, payroll processing firm ADP (ADP) said Wednesday. The consensus was for a 10,000 increase in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics won't publish October employment data that was delayed due a now-ended federal government shutdown. The November jobs report is scheduled for release about a week after the Fed announces its next monetary policy decision Dec. 10.

The ADP data "might be all that (the Federal Open Market Committee) needs for the more dovish leaning governors to counter some hawkish leaning regional presidents to push through another rate cut," Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a Wednesday report.

Also on Wednesday, the Institute for Supply Management reported that its services purchasing managers' index ticked higher at 52.6 last month -- the highest reading since February -- from 52.4 in October. The ISM's measure for prices dropped by 4.6 points to 65.4 in November, the lowest since April.

"Perhaps the most significant development in this report is the decline in the prices index, which could help give the Federal Reserve some confidence that price pressures remain manageable," Vikram Rai, senior economist at TD Economics, said in a report. "It seems competition is a factor as respondents expect to see margins decline to compete for business, which would lead to lower price increases."

Separately, S&P Global (SPGI) said its services PMI gauge dropped to 54.1 in November from October's 54.8, representing the lowest reading since June.

The odds of a 25-basis-point interest rate cut by the Fed stood at 89% on Thursday, with the remaining odds in favor of a no-change scenario, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

Treasury yields were trending higher in premarket action, with the two-year rate rising 1.8 basis points to 3.5% and the 10-year rate gaining 2.3 basis points to 4.08%.

Thursday's economic calendar has the Challenger Job-Cut report for November at 7:30 am ET, followed by the weekly jobless claims bulletin at 8:30 am. The international trade in goods and services report for October is also out at 8:30 am, while the delayed factory orders report for September posts at 10 am.

Fed Vice Chair of Supervision Michelle Bowman is slated to speak at 12 pm.

Salesforce (CRM) inclined 1.7% pre-bell as the customer relationship management platform's fiscal third-quarter earnings exceeded Wall Street estimates. Snowflake (SNOW) fell 8.6% as annual growth in the cloud-based data platform company's fiscal third-quarter product revenue decelerated on a sequential basis.

UiPath (PATH) and Five Below (FIVE) advanced 8.2% and 4.4%, respectively, following their latest quarterly results.

Kroger (KR) , Dollar General (DG) , Brown Forman (BF.A, BF.B), Hormel Foods (HRL) , Donaldson (DCI) and Science Applications International (SAIC) are some of the companies scheduled to release their earnings pre-bell, among others. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) , Ulta Beauty (ULTA) and DocuSign (DOCU) post their financial results after the markets close.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased 0.5% to $59.26 a barrel before the open. Gold slipped 0.1% to $4,229 per troy ounce, while bitcoin decreased 0.3% to $92,842.

MT Newswires does not provide investment advice. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.