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A mixed December jobs report sent stocks higher at the open, and they kept climbing into the close. The gains were enough to keep all three main indexes positive on the week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 ending at new record highs.
At the session’s end, the blue-chip Dow was up 0.5% at 49,504 and the broader S&P 500 was 0.7% higher at 6,966. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.8% to 23,671, but remains just below its all-time closing high of 23,958.47 from October 29.
Market participants struck a glass-half-full outlook to the December jobs report, which showed the U.S. added 50,000 jobs last month, slightly less than economists expected. Figures for October and November were revised lower by a combined 76,000 jobs.
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However, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4% from 4.6%.
“The December jobs report capped a disappointing 2025 for the U.S. job market, with meager payrolls growth that raised the unemployment rate progressively over the course of the year,” says Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “Even so, job growth will likely broaden over the course of 2026 since economic policies are turning more expansionary.”
This morning’s data and three consecutive rate cuts in late 2025 will likely have the Federal Reserve pause at its meeting later this month, Adams adds, though he expects more reductions later this year.
According to CME FedWatch, futures traders are now pricing in a 95% chance the Fed will keep the federal funds rate unchanged when it meets in January, up from 89% one day ago. Betting odds are for the first quarter-point rate cut of 2026 to come in June – after Jerome Powell’s term as Fed chair is up – with at least one more anticipated by year’s end.
CPI, earnings season on tap
The next few weeks will be busy with a string of economic reports set to be released ahead of the next Fed meeting and fourth-quarter earnings season about to kick off.
With the December jobs report now in the books, Wall Street will turn to Tuesday morning’s release of the December Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is expected to “pick up” following December’s distorted results, say Wells Fargo economists Sarah House, Michael Pugliese and Nicole Cervi.
Still, the group expects December’s CPI and core CPI to be lower compared to September’s data and “indicate that inflation has resumed its descent.”
We’ll also start to see corporate earnings reports start to roll in, with air carrier Delta Air Lines (DAL) and big bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM) disclosing their Q4 results ahead of Tuesday’s open.
Trump boasts about Intel’s big gains
While no earnings reports were released today, Intel (INTC, +10.8%) made headlines after President Donald Trump boasted about the United States’ investment in the chipmaker.
“I just finished a great meeting with the very successful Intel CEO, Lip-Bu Tan,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday. “The United States Government is proud to be a Shareholder of Intel, and has already made, through its U.S.A. ownership position, Tens of Billions of Dollars for the American People — IN JUST FOUR MONTHS.”
The U.S. agreed to take a 10% stake in INTC in late August, and since then, shares are up nearly 84%. In fact, Intel finished 2025 as one of the hottest S&P 500 stocks of the year.
But given Intel’s long-term struggles, Wall Street is still on the sidelines. Of the 45 analysts covering the former Dow Jones stock who are tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, six say it’s a Buy or Strong Buy, 32 have it at Hold and seven rate it at Sell or Strong Sell. This works out to a consensus recommendation of Hold.
Oklo (OKLO, +7.9%) and Vistra (VST, +10.5%) closed out the week on a strong note, after Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META, +1.1%) announced agreements with the nuclear power providers.
According to Meta, its partnerships with the two companies, as well as Constellation Energy (CEG, +6.2%) and privately held TerraPower, will unlock 6.6 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear energy by 2025. The company will use to support its artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.
Snowballing demand for all things AI has generated impressive returns for several utility stocks over the past year. Oklo, for one, has seen its share price quadruple over the past 12 months, while Vistra has more than doubled.