Midday Fly By: Job growth comes in below forecasts in December

The major averages were broadly higher near noon after the December nonfarm payrolls report. Stocks have shown resilience early in 2026 after a strong finish to 2025, but the run of gains had met headwinds earlier this week as investors considered cooling tech momentum and the labor data that could influence expectations for the Federal Reserve’s policy path.

Of note, December jobs growth was below forecasts, with payrolls increasing by 50,000 last month, lower than the 73,000 economists polled by Dow Jones had expected. However, the unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, below the estimated 4.5%. 

Looking to commodities, gold prices were surging past $4,500, with the “safe haven” asset getting closer to its record high. Oil prices also jumped, with the commodity up over 3% as traders await more news coming out of Venezuela.

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.

1. STOCK NEWS:

• Meta (META) announced nuclear energy development agreements with Oklo (OKLO) and Vistra (VST)
• Intel (INTC) shares were on the rise after President Trump touted a “great meeting” with CEO Lip-Bu Tan
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reached an agreement with the Trump administration to “improve access to medicines and lower costs” of drugs for American patients, and announced two new U.S. manufacturing facilities
• WD-40 (WDFC) reported mixed Q1 results and reiterated its FY26 earnings and revenue guidance
• December U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose 50,000, with the unemployment rate falling to 4.4%

2. WALL STREET CALLS:

• Wells Fargo (ABNB) to Equal Weight, citing two years of share underperformance
• Adobe (ADBE) downgraded to Market Perform at BMO, sees lack of positive catalysts
• Baird downgraded GE Vernova (GEV) to Neutral from Outperform 
• Mizuho also downgraded Zillow Group (ZG) to Neutral from Outperform
• Qualcomm (QCOM) downgraded to Neutral at Mizuho, which sees headwinds to Qualcomm’s handset shipmentst and iPhone content in 2026

 3. AROUND THE WEB:

• Viswas Raghavan, head of banking at Citigroup (C), told Nikkei in an interview that the big bank has “significant investment plans for Japan,” with particular interest in midsize companies amid an increase in M&A
• AI startup xAI, founded by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, is rapidly burning cash, with losses increasing as it spends to build data centers, recruit staff, and develop software meant to power humanoid robots, Bloomberg says
• Nvidia (NVDA) has hired Alison Wagonfeld, a Google (GOOGL) marketing executive, as Chief Marketing Officer, CMO, at the company, WSJ reports
• Roku (ROKU) CEO and chairman Anthony Wood believes the first 100% AI-generated “hit movie” will debut within the next three years, Variety reports
• Nomura Securities reports that Sandisk (SNDK) is on track to double the price of its high-capacity 3D NAND memory devices for enterprise-grade solid-state drives this quarter, Toms Hardware reports

4. MOVERS:

• CG Oncology (CGON) increases after announcing it expects PIVOT-006 Phase 3 topline data in 1H26
• Allogene Therapeutics (ALLO) gains after Citizens upgraded the stock to Outperform
• uniQure (QURE) higher in New York after announcing a Type A meeting scheduled with FDA
• Aquestive (AQST) lower after announcing the FDA identified deficiencies in its NDA for Anaphylm
• Beta Bionics (BBNX) falls after BofA downgraded the stock to Neutral

5. EARNINGS/GUIDANCE

• Li Auto (LI) reported Q3 results, with revenue lower year-over-year
• Carter’s (CRI) provided guidance for Q4 and FY25
• Evolus (EOLS) provided guidance for Q4 and narrowed its outlook for FY25
• AXT Inc. (AXTI) cut its guidance for Q4
• ChipMOS (IMOS) reported Q4 results, with EPS higher year-over-year

INDEXES:

Near midday, the Dow was up 0.53%, or 259.20, to 49,525.31, the Nasdaq was up 0.77%, or 180.48, to 23,660.49, and the S&P 500 was up 0.60%, or 41.76, to 6,963.22.