Stock Market Today: Russell 2000 Jumps Nearly 2% As Disappointing Jobs Report Renews Rate Cut Bets

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Happy Wednesday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Dec. 3, 2025. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog.

Update: 4:00 p.m. ET

Salesforce Beats Earnings, Issues Strong Forecast

Salesforce (+5.3% after hours) has gained a penchant for being the kind of company that the passerby might not understand, but on Wall Street, their focus is clear: it's on AI, of course.

Investors have been skeptical of the CRM software's efforts to return to double-digit growth, but with the help of its new Agentforce AI product, it seems to finally be delivering some sort of results, at least if you're to believe their quarterly results.

The company reported $3.25 per share (vs. $2.86 expected by LSEG analysts), a hefty beat which helped put aside the company's modest revenue miss -- it rose 8.6% to $10.26 billion (just shy of the $10.27 billion expected.)

However, the real story might be the salesmanship: it says it will bring in between $3.02 and $3.04 in adjusted earnings per share on $11.13 billion to $11.23 billion in revenue this coming quarter, which would put the company back into double-digit revenue growth.

Much of that contribution comes courtesy of the company's recent $8 billion Informatica acquisition, but it also comes thanks to some hefty growth from its AI Agentforce platform, which now boasts $500 million in annualized revenue, up 330% year-over-year.

Update: 4:00 p.m. ET

Closing Bell

The U.S. markets are now closed -- and it seems to have wrapped as it started.

The Russell 2000 (+1.91%) finished out the day strongly at 2,512.14, turning a green day into the greenest performance among major U.S. equity benchmarks. The small cap index rallied after negative ADP data, which fueled hopes for a rate cut at the fast-approaching December Fed meeting.

In large caps, it was the Dow (+0.86%) which carried the large cap trade, anchored by UnitedHealth Group (+5%) and Goldman Sachs (+2.7%). Only five components saw declines today, including yesterday's hero Boeing (-1.61%) and Microsoft (-1.8%). The latter declined amid a report about a possible suspension of AI sales quotas, which has been disputed. It closed at 47,882.90.

Among other large cap indexes, the S&P 500(+0.30%) had an acceptable day; credit to the non-tech portion of the market, which showed out as the AI trade took a backseat today. Still, the Nasdaq (+0.17%) soldiered up and on despite relative weakness in tech. They closed out the day at 6,849.72 and 23,454.09 respectively.

Update: 12:35 p.m. ET

Midday Movers

All four indexes are back in the green after a midday turnaround. Not only that, but about 67% of U.S. issues -- about 3,714 stocks -- are now advancing on the day. That's quite the showing.

Let's zoom in on these pockets of performance in our midday movers list, which takes a look at equities with at least a $2 billion market cap.

Winners

Retail favorite American Eagle (+16.8%) after reporting strong earnings and forecasting a bumper holiday. That puts the fashion brand up 40.5% year-to-date, making it one of the better performers in the Russell 2000.

There's also Ivanhoe Electric (+12.2%), which isn't rallying off any clear news today. The excitement might have something to do with the recent completion of a land acquisition payment agreement, or promissory note, tied to an Arizona-based copper project -- that happened in November, though.

Rounding out the top 20, Beam Therapeutics (+12%) is repping the biotechs, surging on no clear news. The company, which uses CRISPR base editing, has a number of investigational gene therapies under development.

Here's the rest of the list:

Losers

On the other end of the market, GitLab (-13.8%) is unfortunately the king of the losers after its earnings call. The company beat earnings, but still reported a loss; evidently that was a big deal for the software firm.

It's not alone at least, though: it's joined by similarly-situated OneStream (-7.6%), which reported earnings a few weeks ago and made some changes on the CFO front -- ironic because it's a software which purports to "modernize" the "office of the CFO."

Finally, 'life sciences' REIT Alexandria Real Estate (-7.5%) is getting hammered after reducing its quarterly dividend by 45%, a product of weaker FFO guidance for the 2026 FY. That showing was worse than consensus, sending some flighty investors packing.

Here's what is languishing:

Update: 12:09 p.m. ET

In Focus: S&P 500

Heading into midday, the Nasdaq (-0.07%) is now narrowly in the red, while the Dow (+0.48%) and S&P 500 (+0.11%) are finally back in the green.

Central to the rebound seems to be a CNBC report contradicting The Information's earlier statement about Microsoft cutting back quotas on AI software sales. CNBC says Microsoft has not cut back quotas, sending the market higher.

We'll take a look at the S&P 500 heat map this afternoon for some context on the broader market after that news. Microsoft (-2%) still remains down, but at least the rest of the market seems to be compensating for it. Here's the view:

Update: 9:31 a.m. ET

Opening Bell

The U.S. equities market is now open for business. Although earlier it looked as though the futures were golden for a green start to the day, now is another story as investors digest a report from The Information which says that Microsoft (-2%) lowered AI software quotas amid 'complaints' from customers about value.

There's also Delta, which sees the weeks-long government shutdown erasing more than $200 million in profit this quarter. Rounding things out, this morning's unexpected contraction in the ADP Employment Change -- it showed a loss of 32,000 jobs in November.

As a result, the Russell 2000 (+0.29%) is the only equity index in the green for the moment, owing its morning gains to the fact that it isn't just made up of tech companies. Plus, there's always a weird optimism on Wall Street around bad economic data lately; the recognition that bad news could actually spur rate cuts, which would be good for the index's small cap stocks. By contrast, the Nasdaq (-0.43%), S&P 500 (-0.21%), and Dow (-0.08%) are having a less than optimal morning.

In continuous futures, Natural Gas (+2% to $4.938) is higher this morning, adding to a more than 60% rally over the last 3 months. Gold (+0.83% to $4,255.70), Brent Crude (+0.54% to $62.79), and Silver (+0.17% to $58.81) are also up. And in rates land, the 10Y Treasury (-2.7 bips) is sitting at 4.061%.

Update: 9:07 a.m. ET

Premarket Movers: Marvell, Acadia, Astera Labs, Pure Storage

Few stocks are having a better morning than American Eagle (+15%), which is rallying after announcing strong earnings. However, it's notably left out of MarketWatch's premarket moving stocks, so a mention will have to suffice.

On the media firm's webpage, it's Marvell Technology (+9%) taking the lead after an interesting reversal in the company's own earnings report. After initially dropping 8%, the company's stock flipped to the upside. We touch on why that is.

Related: Marvell, Builder of AI Accelerators for Amazon and Microsoft, Surprises Algos with Earnings Commentary; Promises of AI Growth

It's joined this morning by Astera Labs (+5.9%), Driven Brands (+5%), and Allegro MicroSystems (+4.5%) on the shortlist of names gaining in the premarket.

On the other end of the market, Acadia Healthcare (-23.5%) is getting hammered after cutting its 2025 outlook, a product of higher liabilities. It's joined by a graveyard of earnings reactions from yesterday: Pure Storage (-14.7%), GitLab (-10.9%), and Okta (-5.5%), among others.

Update: 7:52 a.m. ET

A.M. Update

Good morning. U.S. equity indexes are tipping to the upside this morning ahead of a wide array of earnings and economic data reports. Here's what to keep an eye on this morning.

Earnings Today: Salesforce, Snowflake, Dollar Tree

Salesforce will anchor today's earnings slate, along with the Royal Bank of Canada, Snowflake Inc., and JBS, among others. Keep an eye out for discount retailers Dollar Tree and Five Below, too.

Here is the list of firms with at least a $1 billion market cap reporting today, per Nasdaq:

Economic Data + Events: ADP Employment Change, Industrial Production, ISM Services PMI

Today will be a busier one for U.S. economic data, as a wide swath of mortgage, jobs, and trade data is set to be reported. Already out this morning is data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, as well as the ADP Employment Change, which showed a reversal from last week's data.

Here's the full slate today, per TradingEconomics:

ICYMI

Plus, in case you missed what happened yesterday, you can get acquainted with what you missed on yesterday's Stock Market Today and Market Wrap.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Dec 3, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest Business & Market News section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.