S&P 500 Ends Flat After Strong Jobs Report

US stocks wobbled on Wednesday after feeling both the upside and downside of a surprisingly strong report on the US job market.

• After initially rising toward its all-time high on Wednesday, the S&P 500 flipped between gains and losses before finishing with a miniscule drop. It fell 0.34 points, or less than 0.1%, to 6,941.47.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 66.74 points, or 0.1%, to 50,121.40.
• The Nasdaq composite fell 36.01 points, or 0.2%, to 23,066.47.

The upside of the stronger-than-expected data for stocks is that it raises hopes that the US economy can remain solid and keep driving big profits for companies, the AP reports. The downside is that it could discourage the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates.

Stocks in the energy and raw-material industries jumped to some of the bigger gains in the S&P 500, and their profits tend to be closely tied to the health of the economy. Exxon Mobil climbed 2.6%. Smurfit Westrock jumped 10.7% even though the packaging company reported a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gave financial targets for the next five years that some analysts found encouraging.

Robinhood Markets fell 8.8% even though the trading and investment app reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of forecasts, and analysts highlighted Robinhood's forecast for expenses in 2026, along with concerns about how long a slowdown in crypto trading will last. Crypto prices have been plunging recently, and bitcoin's price fell toward $67,000 Wednesday. It's lost close to half its value since setting a record in October.

• Moderna dropped 3.5% after saying the US Food and Drug Administration is refusing to consider its application for a new flu vaccine made with Nobel Prize-winning mRNA technology.
• Kraft Heinz pulled back from an early loss and added 0.2% after CEO Steve Cahillane said he's pausing the company's planned split into two businesses as he tries to return it to profitable growth. He also announced a $600 million investment across marketing, sales and research and development.

Treasury yields remained higher in the bond market after the Labor Department said US employers added 130,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, more than economists expected. But Wednesday's report also included major revisions, which said employers added just 181,000 jobs for all of last year. That's less than a third of the previously reported 584,000, and it's the weakest showing for a year since 2020, when COVID-19 shut down the economy. The overall jobs report nevertheless looked to be an encouraging signal for the economy. "We all knew there would be downward revisions, but these were better than expected," Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management, said of the markdowns for 2025.