The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Dec. 5, edition that U.S. stocks closed near the unchanged mark, as investors weighed a report on the labour market and other economic data, while equities drew support from elevated hopes for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut next week. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that markets are pricing in an 87-per-cent chance the central bank will cut rates by 25 basis points this month, up from a 68.6 per cent chance priced in a month ago, according to CME's FedWatch Tool. Horizon Investments head of research Mike Dickson says, "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 [Fed chair Jerome] Powell were a little bit on the hawkish side, but cuts are fully expected." "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 fell 31.96 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 47,850.94, the S&P 500 gained 7.40 points, or 0.11 per cent, to 6,857.12 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 51.04 points, or 0.22 per cent, to 23,505.14.