Dow Jones Today: Stock Futures Little Changed After Major Indexes End Higher for 7th Time in 8 Sessions

Meta’s Metaverse May Be Shrinking. Investors Are Happy and the Stock Is Surging

25 minutes ago

Shares of Meta Platforms (META) surged Thursday following a report that the company is looking to significantly cut spending on its “metaverse” projects next year.

Bloomberg reported that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has requested that executives find at least 10% in budget cuts across the company for next year, with cuts as high as 30% in the metaverse departments.

Shares were up 4% in recent trading. The stock has gained 14% since the start of the year, lagging the performance of the benchmark S&P 500 index.

For years, Zuckerberg has called the metaverse the future of the company, and it was the inspiration for the company’s new name when it changed from Facebook in 2021. However, some investors and analysts have called for the company to stop spending billions on the project because of a lack of progress in sales or interest from consumers.

Citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks, Bloomberg reported that executives have been asked to cut more metaverse spending because of a lack of competition from other tech companies. The cuts are reportedly expected to hit the virtual reality segment of Meta’s operations hardest, and could include layoffs as early as January, though the report noted that the decisions aren’t finalized.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported cuts.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

UiPath Stock Rockets Higher as ‘Customers Scale Agentic Automation’

58 minutes ago

UiPath (PATH) said it’s “delivering meaningful outcomes for customers.” Investors are delivering a meaningful outcome for its stock Thursday.

The New York-based process-automation software company’s shares soared 21% after UiPath reported better-than-expected fiscal 2026 third-quarter results and issued a rosy outlook.

UiPath posted Q3 adjusted earnings of $0.16 per share on revenue that increased 16% year-over-year to $411.1 million. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected $0.15 and $392.8 million, respectively.

On a GAAP basis, UiPath swung to a profit of $0.37 per share from a loss of $0.02 per share a year ago. Analysts expected a loss of $0.02 per share once again.

The results were “a testament to the team’s focus, consistent execution, and the momentum we’re seeing as customers scale agentic automation across the enterprise,” founder and CEO Daniel Dines said. “Enterprises are accelerating their AI and automation strategies, and they’re looking for a unified platform rather than standalone tools. Our ability to bring deterministic automation, agentic automation, and orchestration together in one trusted, governed system is a true differentiator. It’s delivering meaningful outcomes for customers and positions us well as we close out the year.”

For the current quarter, UiPath sees revenue of $462 million to $467 million, ARR of $1.844 billion to $1.849 billion, and operating income of about $140 million. All three metrics were higher than consensus estimates.

UiPath shares are up more than 40% this year.

Official Job Market Data Is Delayed: Here’s What Private Sources Say

1 hr 32 min ago

With government data on the job market for November still weeks away, a pair of private reports show pink slips are flying faster while job offers are slowing down.

U.S. employers shed 9,000 jobs in November, according to a job market report by Revelio Labs, an analytics company that tracks job gains and losses using data from online professional profiles. That was better than the 15,500 lost in October, but it was the fifth month out of the last seven that job growth has been in the red.

A separate report from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed employers announced 71,321 job cuts in November, up from 57,727 in the same time last year. However, it is down from the surge of 153,074 in October.

The data from private-sector firms provide a snapshot of the job market’s health in the absence of official reports, which were delayed by the government shutdown. The official job market report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for October was canceled, and the November report, previously scheduled to be released on Friday, was delayed until Dec. 16.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Kroger Stock Leads S&P 500 Decliners as Q3 Revenue Comes Up Short, Grocer Swings to Loss

2 hr 15 min ago

Kroger’s (KR) third-quarter revenue missed the mark and it swung to a loss. Investors are punishing the stock.

The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain was the worst performer in the S&P 500 Thursday, with shares down 6%.

Kroger posted a GAAP loss of $2.02 per share after recording a profit of $0.85 per share a year ago. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha were expecting a profit of $0.54 per share.

The company’s sales of $33.86 billion were up just 0.7% year-over-year and missed the consensus projection of $34.21 billion. Adjusted EPS of $1.05 beat estimates by a penny.

Including today’s declines, Kroger shares are up less than 2% this year.

Snowflake Stock Drops as Operating Margin Forecast Disappoints

3 hr 57 min ago

Investors are hammering Snowflake (SNOW) stock despite fiscal 2026 third-quarter results that topped analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom line.

Shares of Snowflake sank 10% Thursday, a day after the Bozeman, Mont.-based cloud data analytics company issued a current-quarter operating margin projection lower than that of Q3.

Snowflake posted Q3 adjusted earnings of $0.35 per share on revenue that increased 29% year-over-year to $1.21 billion. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected $0.31 and $1.19 billion, respectively.

For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Snowflake reported operating income of $131.3 million, with an 11% margin. However, for Q4, the firm expects a 7% operating margin, below the 9% margin it guided for—and surpassed—in Q3.

“We will continue to invest in the business, but I think there is also substantial gains to be had in just how efficient we are as a company,” Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said on the earnings call, according to an AlphaSense transcript. “And I don’t think of this as an either/or. We have had pretty healthy expansions in things like operating margin, but also things like [stock-based compensation] year-over-year, and we will continue to press hard on those things.”

Even with today’s plunge, Snowflake stock is up more than 50% this year.

The Trump Name Isn’t What It Used to Be on Wall Street

5 hr 24 min ago

It’s been a troubling couple of months for investors—including the first family.

Assets linked to President Donald Trump and his family have underperformed the broader market in recent months. The weakness has been most pronounced in crypto markets, where affiliation with the Trump family has at other times sent asset prices skyrocketing. 

Shares of Eric Trump’s American Bitcoin (ABTC), formed through a merger with an existing bitcoin miner, plummeted as much as 50% in early trading on Tuesday and finished the session down 39%. American Bitcoin on Tuesday closed at its lowest price since Trump’s involvement was announced in May and finished Wednesday about 75% of below its September closingb high.

Meanwhile, a widespread crypto rally pushed Bitcoin back above $93,000 and lifted shares of miners and Bitcoin treasury companies like Strategy (MSTR)—the latter which rose nearly 4% yesterday.

Read the full article here.

–Colin Laidley

Dow, S&P 500 Approaching All-Time Highs

6 hr 7 min ago

With their recent run of gains, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are approaching record closing highs.

Since the end of trading on Nov. 20, the blue-chip Dow and benchmark S&P 500 have gained 4.7% and 4.8%, respectively, to move within 1% of all-time closing highs.

The Dow entered Thursday at 47882.90, near its record close of 48254.82 set on Nov. 12. The S&P 500 stood at 6849.72, near its ending record of 6890.89 on Oct. 28.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq entered the day about 2% below its all-time closing high of 23958.47 set on Oct. 29.

Prediction-Markets Data Is on CNN Now. Expect to See It Just About Everywhere Soon

7 hr 2 min ago

Prediction markets are getting more more visible to the masses by the day.

Kalshi recently announced a partnership with CNN that would include integrating its prediction markets data across the national media network’s programming. Certain segments are already showing a scrolling banner detailing the odds of events contracts on the exchange, and the announcement indicates the possibility of many more uses.

Prediction markets have become a hot commodity after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, when Polymarket bettors more accurately predicted the outcome than did many traditional polls. That has beckoned a raft of new players into the mix—including Robinhood (HOOD), Coinbase (COIN) and Trump Media (DJT)—as well as a wave of investment dollars.

Competition in prediction markets is heating up. Kalshi has inked deals with Google Finance, the National Hockey League and Robinhood, the latter which is planning to roll out its own exchange. Polymarket is due to return to the U.S. and has drawn an investment from New York Stock Exchange parent company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). FanDuel has a pact with CME Group (CME) to launch a platform this month.

Lots of money is at stake. “The time has finally come for prediction markets to achieve their full potential and we are intent on making that happen,” Kalshi cofounder and CEO Tarek Mansour said in a social media post on Tuesday. Mansour’s post followed an announcement that the company raised $1 billion in fresh fundraising that set its valuation at $11 billion.

Read the full article here.

–Crystal Kim

Stock Futures Little Changed After Major Indexes Finish Higher for 7th Time in 8 Sessions

7 hr 28 min ago

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked about 0.1% higher.

S&P 500 futures were flat.

Nasdaq 100 futures were down about 0.1%.