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Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500 slip, Nasdaq snaps three-day losing streak as Tesla climbs to record
Karen Friar,
Jake Conleyand
Ines FerréUpdated
Tue, December 16, 2025 at 4:04 PM EST
2 min read
In this article:
US stocks diverged on Tuesday, Tesla (TSLA) stock hitting a new record at the same time that the Dow and S&P 500 slumped as investors saw a mixed picture from updates on the labor market. The delayed November jobs report showed an uptick in jobs added last month but also found the unemployment rate jumped to a 2021 high.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed 0.2% as Tesla shares closed at their first record in a year on the heels of recent robotaxi advancements. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 0.2%, while the blue chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed 0.6%, or 300 points.
All eyes on Wall Street turned to the latest monthly employment figures on Tuesday morning. The late-arriving November nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the US economy added 64,000 jobs last month, more than expected. But the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, in a potential warning sign for a market already showing some cracks. Also, the BLS said October's print showed a loss of 105,000 jobs.
The report will add fuel to the fire on the big year-end debate over whether the Federal Reserve will halt or hasten policy easing in 2026. A plurality of traders is betting on two rate cuts from the Fed next year, as policymakers focus on tackling the labor market rather than dealing with sticky inflation.
The jobs data sets the stage for another release on Thursday, with consumer inflation numbers for November set for an unveiling. Together, the two reports make up a chunk of the "great deal of data" Fed Chair Jerome Powell has flagged the central bank will study before its next rate decision in January.
In corporates, Ford (F) was in focus said it would take a $19.5 billion charge as part of a pivot away from electric vehicles.
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51 mins ago Ines Ferré
Stocks close mixed, Tesla notches record high on robotaxi advancements
Tesla (TSLA) shares closed at a record high on Tuesday on the heels of bullish sentiment around the EV maker's robotaxi advancements.
The stock has advanced 30% year-to-date on pace to end the year on a high note after a volatile 2025 marked by a pivot towards robotaxi and humanoid robots and AI chips.
The major averages closed mixed on Tuesday after the latest labor data showed an uptick in jobs added last month while the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed 0.2% Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) dropped 0.2% while the blue chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed 0.6%.
Gas prices continue to slide below $3, hitting fresh 4-year low ahead of Christmas
Gasoline prices hit a new four-year low as oil continues to slide.
As of Tuesday, the national average at the pump was $2.90, roughly $0.12 less than a year ago, according to AAA data, marking a third consecutive week of declines.
The downward trend has been driven by US refineries completing maintenance and boosting output, along with falling crude prices.
On Tuesday, West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) futures hovered $55 per barrel, their lowest level since 2021, as prices have fallen 22% year to date.
Brent (BZ=F), the international benchmark, has fallen 20% during the same period.
Read more here.
- Today at 7:31 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell
Affirm stock jumps on extended Amazon partnership
Affirm (AFRM) stock surged 10% on Tuesday after Affirm CFO Robert O'Hare offered additional color on the company's extended partnership with Amazon (AMZN).
The buy now, pay later platform announced it had extended its partnership with Amazon for another five years on the company's earnings call in November. But on Tuesday, O'Hare added that the renewal was "largely in line" with the current program.
"We're so proud of the program that we've built with Amazon and just the conversion we've been able to bring to the program, the number of new users that we brought to Amazon and to Affirm," O'Hare said on a special call with investors. "It's been ... a win-win on both sides, and I think that was reflected in the fact that the terms were renewed largely in line with where we are in the current program."
- Today at 5:55 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell
November jobs report doesn’t change much for the Fed
Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger reports:
Today at 5:13 PM UTC Jake Conley
Pfizer loses 5% after weak 2026 profit outlook
Pfizer (PFE) stock fell by more than 5% through mid-day trading on Tuesday after the pharmaceutical giant released 2026 profit guidance below Wall Street expectations.
In the release, Pfizer guided adjusted profit between $2.80 and $3 per share, while the Street had been looking for $3.05 per share, according to LSEG estimates.
Revenues are projected to be between $59.5 billion and $62.5 billion in 2026, meeting analyst expectations of $61.59 billion. Although the company noted that revenue generated by COVID-19 products is likely to be $1.5 billion lower than what it expects to make from the products in 2025.
The company also lowered guidance on adjusted EPS, guiding to a range of $2.80 to $3 per share, down from 2025 guidance of $3 to $3.15.
On Monday, Bank of America (BAC) analysts reiterated their "Neutral" rating but lowered their price target to $28 from $29.
"As we look ahead to 2026, we struggle to see a re-rating catalyst as the company works through its multi-year [loss of exclusivity] period," BofA analysts wrote. When the company's loss of exclusivity period ends, expected around 2029, the company will lose patent protection on some of its drugs, allowing generics and competitors with similar formulations to enter the market.
- Today at 3:51 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell
US retail sales unexpectedly unchanged in October
US retail sales were unchanged in October, showing consumer spending unexpectedly held up in the start of the holiday shopping season as economists note a K-shaped economy is creating a divide between low-income and high-income households.
Reuters reports:
Oil falls to four-year low on supply glut momentum, tightening product margins
Crude oil prices fell to levels not seen since the doldrums of the pandemic at the start of 2021, as a widely expected supply glut picked up momentum and peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine conflict took steps forward.
Futures on international pricing benchmark Brent crude (BZ=F) fell by 2.2% to trade below $59.30, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude (CL=F) fell by a deeper 2.4% to trade below $55.50. Both energy products reached levels Tuesday morning that haven't been seen since February 2021.
In signs of mounting downward pressure on the oil market, prices on Dubai crude oil, a key pricing benchmark in the Asia market, and barrels on the US Gulf Coast both slipped Tuesday morning into contango, according to Bloomberg data.
Contango is a market pattern where futures prices further out on the curve are higher than near-dated futures or spot prices as costs for storage, financing, and carry become steeper and traders look for a looser market to come.
Crack spreads, or the difference between oil and its derived products like jet fuel or gasoline, have also tightened over the past month as prices on the crude derivatives — which had been supporting overall pricing — have fallen.
Both Brent and WTI crude are headed for yearly losses of more than 20% as the market has been flooded with oversupply. The OPEC+ cartel has been unwinding cuts at a significant rate, pumping up the amount of barrels it is adding to the market each month, at the same time as other supplier countries outside of the Americas have been raising their levels.
Commodities strategists at JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS) see Brent prices slipping into the $50s per barrel in 2026, reaching prices not seen since the start of the pandemic, when an overnight halt in cars on the road briefly pushed prices negative. If the OPEC+cartel, which has agreed to pause unwinding through the first quarter, doesn't shift to cutting barrels and other producers don't slow down as well, the strategists see oil possibly dropping into the $40s or even $30s per barrel — levels that would be catastrophic for the industry.
At the same time, peace talks in Ukraine seem to have moved forward, as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said he has secured a deal for US security guarantees in a bid to end the war. Russia's Vladimir Putin, however, has not agreed to any concessions.
US stocks open mixed on Tuesday's trading session
US stocks diverged at the open on Tuesday after the delayed November jobs report showed an uptick in jobs added last month, while the unemployment rate rose to its highest since 2021.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) hovered just above the flatline, retracing a slight downturn in premarket trading. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) lost roughly 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell 0.3% after the market notched slight losses on Monday.
The late-to-publish November nonfarm-payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the US economy added 64,000 jobs last month, above analyst expectations. But the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, hotter than estimates, in a labor market already showing some cracks. Though a separate October jobs report won't be published, the month saw a loss of 105,000 jobs, the BLS said.
- Today at 2:09 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell
Fed and investors contend with another month of noisy government data
Investors were warned heading into the November jobs report that the numbers might be noisy following the 43-day government shutdown and the lagged effects of DOGE cuts.
"Everybody should assume there’s a pretty big margin of error here," RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas told Yahoo Finance, adding that investors are likely to see revisions in January, when the data returns to normal.
The government is catching up on its delayed and canceled economic reports after the government shutdown created a data fog. The mixed employment numbers released Tuesday underscored the distortions.
For instance, the November jobs report also included data on October payrolls, which declined by 105,000 during the month, after the October jobs report was canceled. The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not collect household survey data for that month.
Adding to the volatility were federal worker job cuts from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which didn't formally drop off the payrolls until the fall. As my colleague Jake Conley noted below, federal government employment sharply declined by 162,000 in October and by 6,000 in November.
This means that when the Federal Open Market Committee convenes again in January, it will have to contend with flawed data for at least another month.
"We're going to need to be careful in assessing, particularly the household survey data," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last Wednesday after the FOMC cut interest rates. "We're going to get data, but we're going to have to look at it carefully and with a somewhat skeptical eye," he added.
As of 9 a.m. ET, traders' bets that the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates again in January remained unchanged at 24%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
US added 64,000 jobs in November, above analyst estimates
The US economy added 64,000 jobs in November, according to a delayed report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released this morning.
November's nonfarm payrolls added for the month beat analysts' expectations of 50,000 jobs added as investors — and the Federal Reserve, fresh off another rate cut — watch for signs of how the labor market is holding up.
The unemployment rate crept up to 4.6%, its highest level since September 2021.
The jobs report was originally scheduled for Friday, Dec. 5, but it and a slew of other government data were delayed by the government shutdown earlier this fall.
Notably, federal government employment declined by 6,000, normalizing after October departures totaled 162,000 as government employees took the buyout package offered to exit civil service.
Stock market futures were largely flat on the news.
- Today at 1:23 PM UTC Grace O'Donnell
Broadcom stock extends its slide
Broadcom (AVGO) stock moved 1% lower in premarket trading, putting shares on track to extend their slide for a fourth day.
The stock has declined by 16% in the past three days, including a 5.5% drop on Monday, following the company's earnings. While Broadcom beat Wall Street's estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter, investors viewed the chip developer's AI backlog — $73 billion over the next 18 months — as a bit light.
That helped catalyze Broadcom's worst three-day decline since March 2020, which in turn helped fuel a sell-off in tech names on Monday.
However, year to date, Broadcom stock is on a remarkable run and is on pace to return 46%.
Today at 1:05 PM UTC Jenny McCall
Kraft Heinz names ex-Kellanova chief Steve Cahillane as new CEO
Kraft Heinz (KHC) stock edged higher on Tuesday after announcing that Steve Cahillane will become the next CEO of the company, effective January 1, 2026, according to a statement from the maker of Heinz ketchup.
Steve Cahillane, who used to be the CEO of Kellanova (K), will also join the company's Board of Directors. Outgoing leader, Carlos Abrams-Rivera, will step down on January 1 and will serve as advisor to the company until March 6, 2026, the statement said.
Kraft Heinz announced in September that it plans to split into two companies. The group's stock price has fallen 22% so far this year.
Good morning. Here's what's happening today.
Economic data: Nonfarm payrolls (November); Average hourly earnings (November); Unemployment rate (November): Retail sales (October); S&P Global US manufacturing PMI (December preliminary reading); S&P Global US services PMI (December preliminary reading) (54.1 previously)
Earnings calendar: Lennar Corporation (LEN), Worthington Enterprises (WOR)
Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:
The labor market is still frozen. Will it 'crack' in 2026?
How Gen X is scrambling to close the retirement savings gap
Why Wall Street thinks Microsoft's AI edge could drive a $5T future
40,000 new jobs expected for November jobs report
Pfizer's 2026 profit outlook falls short
Dutch pension shift obsessing bond traders is about to get real
Ford to take $19.5B charge in sweeping EV pivot
Nasdaq seeks approval for 23-hour trading on weekdays
Biggest US power auction set to deepen affordability concerns
- Today at 12:27 PM UTC Karen Friar
Oil prices fall as hopes grow for Ukraine peace talks
Oil continued to slide on Tuesday amid concerns about a supply surplus and hopes of a breakthrough in Ukraine peace talks.
Brent crude futures (BZ=F) fell 1.4% to break below $60 a barrel for the first time since May, trading near their lowest since 2021. Meanwhile, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate futures (CL=F) dropped roughly 1.6% to just below $56 a barrel.
Bloomberg reports:
Premarket trending tickers: Roku, Gitlab, and Zillow
Roku (ROKU) shares rose 4% before the bell following Morgan Stanley's upgrade to Overweight from Equal Weight, along with a price target increase to $135 from $85.
Gitlab (GTLB) stock fell 3% during premarket trading on Tuesday after being downgraded by analysts at KeyBanc, who cut their rating to Sector Weight from Overweight.
Zillow (Z) stock dropped 2% in premarket trading. The housing app closed 8% down on Monday, following news that Google (GOOG) thawill start to test real estate listings in its search results.
- Today at 10:36 AM UTC
Nasdaq seeks SEC approval for 23-hour trading during weekdays
Bloomberg reports:
- Today at 9:23 AM UTC Karen Friar
Bitcoin breaches $86,000 while sinking toward year’s lows
Bloomberg reports:
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) dropped below $86,000 for the first time in two weeks, with investor sentiment weakening as the largest cryptocurrency slips deeper into bear market territory.
Bitcoin has been drifting toward the lower bound of its recent trading range with any bounce in price being met by selling from investors who purchased the original cryptocurrency near the all-time high reached in early October, analysts said.
... “We’ve continued to trade this very choppy range between 85k-94k in BTC, with a continued lack of interest and low volumes broadly across crypto markets,” said Bohan Jiang, senior derivatives trader at FalconX.
Bitcoin has continued to fall with other risk assets in recent weeks but hasn’t rebounded when they have, breaking its usual upside correlation. The slide highlights what analysts see as a market squeezed by weak liquidity and fading risk appetite even after the Federal Reserve’s rate cut last week.
Mon, December 15, 2025 at 11:59 PM UTC Brett LoGiurato
Ford to take $19.5B charge in pivot away from EVs
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