US STOCKS-Wall Street mostly flat as Fed watchers digest jobs data

Dec 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks held near the unchanged mark on Thursday, as investors digested a batch of economic data, including a report on the labor market, as expectations remained elevated for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut next week.

With the November payrolls report scheduled for after the Fed's December meeting due to the extended government shutdown, market participants have looked to secondary indicators that have given a mixed view of the labor market.

A Labor Department report showed initial jobless claims dropped to their lowest level in more than three years, although analysts suggested the drop could have been in part due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

A separate report from the Chicago Fed estimated the unemployment rate held near 4.4% in November.

Markets are pricing in an 87% chance the central bank will cut rates by 25 basis points this month, up from around 68.6% a month ago, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

"Everybody's waiting around to see what the Fed thinks with any of this data that they've seen come in because the last comments from Powell were a little bit on the hawkish side, but cuts are fully expected," said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"The short of it is the gold standard is payrolls, and we just don't have an updated figure there, so that's going to really move the needle one way or the other on any future rate policy paths."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 31.11 points, or 0.06%, to 47,851.79, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.67 points, or 0.01%, to 6,850.39 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 12.15 points, or 0.05%, to 23,466.24.

A delayed report from the Commerce Department showed factory orders rose 0.2%, short of the 0.5% estimate, after a downwardly revised 1.3% increase in August as tariffs hemmed in manufacturers.

Dow component Salesforce CRM.N climbed 3.7% after the company raised its fiscal 2026 revenue and adjusted profit forecasts, anticipating growth in its artificial intelligence agent platform due to strong enterprise demand.

On the plus side, Meta Platforms META.O rose nearly 4% as one of the biggest boosts to the S&P after a Bloomberg report said the Facebook parent planned cuts of up to 30% of its Metaverse budget.

Meanwhile, Amazon AMZN.O dipped 1.6%, one of the biggest weights to the benchmark S&P index after the e-commerce company said it was in discussions with the U.S. Postal Service about their future relationship and is considering its options before its contract expires next year.

The consumer staples index .SPLRCS had the biggest decline of the 11 major S&P sectors, pressured by a 4% fall in Kroger KR.N after the supermarket chain narrowed its annual sales forecast and missed quarterly sales estimates. In contrast, Dollar General DG.N surged 1.7% after the discount retailer raised its annual profit forecast.

Snowflake SNOW.N tumbled 11.4% after the cloud data analytics company's fourth-quarter product revenue forecast was below lofty investor expectations for stronger growth.

Hormel Foods HRL.N advanced 3.8% after the Skippy peanut butter maker forecast annual profit above estimates.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.49-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and five new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 98 new highs and 42 new lows.