US close: Stocks mixed as investors eye December jobs report

8th Jan 2026 21:12

(Sharecast News) - US stocks finished mixed on Thursday with the Dow and S&P 500 closing in the green but the Nasdaq slipping, as nervousness ahead of Friday's non-farm payrolls report weighed on risk appetite.

The Dow, which set a new record on Tuesday before retreating on Wednesday, finished 0.6% higher at 49,266.11.

The S&P 500, which also reached a new high this week, finished just 0.01% higher at 6,921.46, having stayed within a narrow range for most of the day.

The Nasdaq, however, slipped 0.4% to 23,480.02, following three straight days of gains as investors scaled back positions in tech stocks.

Investors are continuing to digest Trump's controversial raid on Venezuela at the weekend, in which the US military detained the country's president and took control of its energy industry. According to Trump, who pledged to deliver 30m to 50m barrels of Venezuelan oil to the US, America's involvement in Venezuela could last for years.

The US president has repeatedly raised the prospect of producing enough crude from Venezuela's oilfields to drive down the US oil price from more than $56 a barrel today to about $50 in an effort to cut energy costs for domestic consumers, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior administration officials.

Despite downward pressure on the oil price from oversupply concerns, heightened geopolitical tensions continued to produce some wild swings across commodity markets on Thursday, with WTI crude surging 4.7% to a one-month high of $58.63 a barrel.

Eyes turn to jobs data

In economic data, initial jobless claims rose 8,000 to 208,000 last week, largely as expected, though the four-week moving average fell 7,250 to 211,750, hitting its lowest mark since late-April 2024. Meanwhile, the US trade deficit fell to $29.4bn in October, down from a revised $48.1bn in September, marking the smaller deficit since June 2009.

However, the focus was starting to turn towards Friday's all-important non-farm payrolls report for December, which is expected to show 60,000 job gains during the month, down from 64,000 in November.

"Despite Trump's efforts to spark a resurgence in US manufacturing, job creation appears to be almost entirely driven by health and education over recent months, with the ongoing contraction of jobs elsewhere in the economy likely to raise concerns at the Fed," said Joshua Mahony, chief market analyst at Scope Markets.

"With a March rate cut essentially priced in as a coin-toss, tomorrows jobs report does provide the basis for a potential market-moving event if we see any particularly strong deviation from expectations."

Defence stocks jump

Defence companies Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX all rose strongly after Trump called for his government's defence spending to reach $1.5trn, three times the current $500bn budget that the Pentagon is expected to receive this year.

Stocks across the sector were rebounding following a sell-off on Wednesday after the president attacked weapons makers and Pentagon contractors for excessive exec pay and share buybacks, pushing them to invest more in production and infrastructure.

Meta Platforms was lower after the news that Chinese regulators are to probe its $2bn acquisition of artificial intelligence start-up Manus. China's Ministry of Commerce said regulators would assess if the deal was consistent with the country's regulations of export controls, technology imports and exports, and external investments.

Google parent Alphabet settled at an all-time high of $326.01, with the stock having surged 86% over the past six months, helped a Cantor Fitzgerald upgrade from 'neutral' to 'overweight'.

Costco was also performing well after the wholesale retailer impressed with an 8.5% year-on-year rise in sales over December to $27.5bn.