U.S. stocks opened lower on the 3rd (local time) as weakness in technology shares outweighed the increased likelihood of an interest rate cut.
In early trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.87 points, or 0.01%, to 47,470.68. The Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 fell 16.77 points, or 0.25%, to 6,812.60, while the Nasdaq composite lost 130.731 points, or 0.56%, to 23,282.943.
U.S. payroll firm Automatic Data Processing (ADP) said on the 3rd (local time) that private-sector employment in the United States in November decreased by 32,000 from October.
The figure ran counter to Wall Street expectations. Dow Jones had released a forecast that November employment would increase by 40,000.
Business outlet CNBC said, "Some investors see the decline in private employment as increasing the likelihood of a rate cut at next week's final meeting of the year by the Federal Reserve (Fed)." According to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, the interest rate swap market is pricing about an 89% chance of a cut next week.
Large-cap tech stocks fell on the day. The move came after news that Microsoft had lowered sales targets for some artificial intelligence (AI)-related software for next year. Microsoft fell about 2% in early trading, Nvidia declined nearly 1%, and Broadcom fell more than 2%.
By contrast, Tesla rose nearly 2% after news that sales in the China market increased 10% from a year earlier.