Stock market today: Live updates

October job openings slid to the lowest level since 2021, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed 8.7 million roles in October, below economists’ consensus forecast of 9.4 million, according to Dow Jones. It also marked the fewest openings since March 2021.

That data is welcome news for investors hoping for evidence that prior interest rate hikes have had the Federal Reserve’s intended impact on the economy. Stocks took a leg up following the data, but the Dow still remained more than 100 points down.

— Alex Harring, Jeff Cox

The three major indexes kicked off Tuesday’s session down.

The Dow and S&P 500 traded about 0.2% and 0.3% lower, respectively, shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET. The Nasdaq Composite slid about 0.4%.

Tuesday’s open follows a losing session on Monday for the three major averages.

— Alex Harring

Investors will have to pare back their expectations for December after a strong November rally, UBS said.

Stocks notched five straight weeks of gains on Friday, with the S&P 500 registering a fresh high for the year. But UBS’ Mark Haefele expects markets may now be pricing in “too much good news on monetary policy,” and may not benefit from falling Treasury yields the same as it had in November. In fact, his 4,700 year-end S&P 500 forecast spells a 2% rise for the broader index.

“After such a strong rally in November, we think the potential size of US stock gains ahead look more modest—we forecast the S&P will end next year at around 4,700,” Haefele wrote on Tuesday.

— Sarah Min

These are some of the stocks making notable moves before the bell:

• GitLab — GitLab shares popped more than 14% after the maker of developer tool software posted stronger-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results and shared upbeat guidance. The company posted its first adjusted operating profit and said revenue grew 32% year over year.
• Take-Two Interactive — The video game publisher’s stock fell more than 4% before the bell. Subsidiary Rockstar Games released the trailer for the new iteration of its Grand Theft Auto game, which is slated for 2025, earlier than expected following a leak on social media platform X.
• CVS Health —The pharmacy stock added more than 1% in premarket trading after the company provided higher-than-expected revenue guidance for 2024.

See the full list of stocks moving here.

— Samantha Subin

While the major indexes posted losses on Monday, one group was able to sidestep the downtrend: small-cap stocks.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite all finished Monday lower, marking a turn after notching five straight winning weeks. But the small-cap focused Russell 2000 broke from the trend, finishing Monday’s session more than 1% higher.

It can be seen as a reprieve for smaller names, with the Russell 2000 underperforming the three major averages over the course of 2023.

Lands’ End tumbled 9% before the bell after the retail posted a quarterly earnings report that showed weakness compared with a year prior.

The retailer said it lost 11 cents per share in the third quarter excluding items, a wider loss than the 5-cent drop recorded in the same three-month period in 2022. Revenue was down about 12% from the same quarter a year ago.

Investors also analyzed current-quarter and full-year guidance offered by the company.

— Alex Harring

Food maker J. M. Smucker gyrated in Tuesday premarket trading after cooling expectations for its full-year financial performance.

J. M. Smucker slashed the top end of its comparable net sales guidance, while also pulling back its forecast for adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow. Meanwhile, the company also said capital expenditures would be likely higher than previously expected for the full year.

Elsewhere, second-quarter earnings per share came in higher than anticipated by analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. Investors have watched J.M. Smucker since its September announcement that it would buy Twinkies maker Hostess Brands for $5.6 billion.

— Alex Harring

Moody’s lowered its outlook on China to negative from stable as debt levels across the country continue to rise, and Beijing moves to support the economy through fiscal stimulus measures.

“The outlook change also reflects the increased risks related to structurally and persistently lower
medium-term economic growth and the ongoing downsizing of the property sector,” Moody’s said in a statement.

The iShares MSCI China ETF (MCHI) fell nearly 2% in the premarket.

Goldman Sachs’ Scott Rubner noted that the market is now in the process of unwinding some of the long positions taken in the last month that lifted the S&P 500 to its highest levels of the year last week.

“The flow-of-funds dynamics that caused the everything rally in November have absolutely run out of gas right now,” Rubner wrote in a note titled “GS Tactical Flow-of-Funds: December – unwind of the unwind.”

“CTA asymmetric skew is firmly to the down side after buying +$225 Billion in the last 1-month and now long $92 Billion. We have +$58B to buy in a up big tape vs. -$210B to sell in a down big tape,” he said. “This is the fastest increase in exposure that we have ever seen.”

The S&P 500 rallied 8.9% in November for its biggest monthly gain since July 2022.

— Fred Imbert

Stockholm-listed shares of Sweden’s Ericsson were 8.5% higher at 8:30 a.m. London time after telecom juggernaut AT&T announced it would partner with the firm on its deployment of an open radio access network (Open RAN) in the U.S.

AT&T spend could near $14 billion over a five-year contract with Ericsson, the companies said Monday.

Ericsson will manufacture 5G equipment for the project at its factory in Lewisville, Texas.

Finland’s Nokia dropped 7.35% to its lowest level since November 2020, as it loses more of its share of AT&T supplier work to Ericsson.

Open RAN or ORAN networks represent a shift to telecom firms using cloud-based software and equipment from several suppliers, potentially cutting costs, rather than using proprietary equipment largely from one company.

U.K. households delayed Christmas spending in November, leading to damp retail sales, according to the British Retail Consortium.

The trade group found sales rose 2.7% in November, slightly above the 2.6% average over the last three months but down from 4.2% growth in November 2022. It noted its figures are not adjusted for inflation and so likely represent a fall in overall volumes.

Food sales were 7.6% higher across the three months to November, while non-food sales dipped 1.6%.

“Black Friday began earlier this year as many retailers tried to give sales a much-needed boost in November. While this had the desired effect initially, the momentum failed to hold throughout the month,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC.

Retailers will look to offer customers affordability in December to boost spending, Dickinson said, while in 2024 they will face fresh cost pressures from higher business rates and an increase to the minimum wage.

The cost-of-living crisis continues to test consumer resilience, said Paul Martin, U.K. head of retail at KPMG.

“With two of the three months of the crucial golden quarter seeing sales growth below 3%, it has already been a weak Christmas trading period. Any excess stock not sold before Christmas could be further reduced leading to big January sales, and potentially having an even greater impact on already tight margins,” Martin said.

— Jenni Reid

The Caixin China services purchasing managers’ index for November climbed to its highest in three months, diverging from China’s official PMI reading that showed a contraction.

This private survey reading came in at 51.5 in November, according to a release dated Dec. 5, rising from 50.4 in October and 50.2 in September.

China’s official non-manufacturing PMI services sub-index for November released last week came in at 49.3, showing a contraction for the first time since December 2022 .

— Clement Tan

The headline inflation rate in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo rose by 2.6% in November, its slowest rise since July 2022.

This comes after the capital city’s inflation rate spiked to 3.3% in October, after being largely on a downward trend from its peak in January. Tokyo’s inflation readings are largely considered to be a leading indicator of nationwide trends.

Core inflation, which strips out prices of fresh food, came in at 2.3%, lower than Reuters expectations of 2.4% and also down from 2.7% in October.

The so called “core-core” inflation rate, which strips out both fresh food and fuel prices and watched by the Bank of Japan fell slightly to 3.6%, down from 3.8% in October.

— Lim Hui Jie

Australia’s central bank held its benchmark policy rate at 4.35% in its December meeting, in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters.

In its release, the Reserve Bank of Australia explained that the “limited information” on the domestic economy that has come in since its November meeting has been in line with expectations.

The bank noted that October’s CPI reading showed inflation has moderated, but did not provide much more information on services inflation.

The RBA also highlighted that while there have been encouraging signs on goods inflation abroad, services price inflation has remained persistent, and the same could occur in Australia.

— Lim Hui Jie

November’s rally, which saw heathy returns for stocks and price appreciation for bonds, spurred investors to snap up exchange traded funds, according to State Street.

Investors poured $94 billion into ETFs overall last month, placing them $40 billion away from reaching $500 billion in flows for the year, the firm found.

Bond ETFs saw inflows to the tune of $27 billion, but high-yield bond ETFs scooped up $11 billion for their best month ever, State Street said. This time, ultra-short government bond ETFs – a favorite of investors this year amid high interest rates and an inverted yield curve – posted outflows of $7.1 billion as yields tumbled in November.

“There was a defined shift in sentiment and risk was expressed in bonds, in addition to equities,” Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research, State Street Global Advisors said.

–Darla Mercado

Small caps are likely on pace to continue their recent outperformance heading into 2024, said Olivier d’Assier, head of applied research, APAC at Axioma.

“This year, caution took the form of betting on large, well-capitalized, profitable, value stocks that benefited from a strong USD,” said d’Assier.

As macro uncertainty over the rise in interest rates has come down, “high-for-not-much-longer” is the new market consensus, d’Assier added. This shift will benefit small cap growth stocks, he noted.

“In 2024, as investors play the rebound in the economic cycle, they will favor small cap growth stocks and companies benefitting from a weaker USD,” he continued.

— Hakyung Kim

Gitlab shares rallied more than 16% Monday post market after posting better-than-expected fiscal third quarter results. The software company also posted its first-ever adjusted operating profit.

Meanwhile, disposable medical devices company Merit Medical Systems fell 4.1% after announcing a proposed sale of $550 million convertible note in a private placement.

U.S. stock futures opened slightly below the flatline on Monday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 31 points, or 0.1%.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also slipped 0.1%.

— Hakyung Kim