US Equity Indexes Decline Amid Sliding Treasury Yields, Crude Oil

12:22 PM EST, 12/16/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes fell along with government yields and crude oil in midday trading on Tuesday as investors weighed a deluge of macroeconomic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 48,198.9, with the S&P 500 down 0.5% to 6,781.2, and the Nasdaq Composite 0.4% lower at 22,976.5. All but two sectors, technology and consumer discretionary, fell. Health care and energy led the retreat.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 64,000 in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday, beating the consensus for a 50,000 increase in a Bloomberg-compiled survey. The BLS report was delayed by more than a week because of the recent federal government shutdown. Private payrolls grew by 69,000, with the service industry adding 50,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, the highest since September 2021, compared with Wall Street's expectation of 4.5%.

"The combined message of all of this (jobs) data is sufficiently muddled that it does not give a sense of whether broader downside risks to the labor market have intensified," Jefferies Chief US Economist Thomas Simons said in a report e-mailed to MT Newswires. "We still expect 50 (basis points) in further reductions during the first half of 2026, so our odds for a March cut remain high."

Most US Treasury yields fell, with the 10-year yield down 2.9 basis points to 4.15% and the two-year yield 2.5 basis points lower at 3.48%, reflecting a risk-off move.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures traded 2.4% lower at $55.44 a barrel, after hitting a 52-week low of $54.98, according to data compiled by CNBC.

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