Weak jobs data, Salesforce earnings, GM’s ‘Silicon Valley cowboy’ and more in Morning Squawk

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Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

Yesterday highlighted the relevance of a market adage: Bad news can actually be good news for investors. After private payroll data showed weakness in the labor market, stocks climbed as investors hoped the report would strengthen the case for an interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week.

Here’s what to know:

• The ADP reported a surprise decline of 32,000 jobs in November. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were forecasting a gain of 40,000.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied more than 400 points in Wednesday’s session, pulling the 30-stock index into positive territory for the week.
• Traders are now pricing in a roughly 89% likelihood of a rate cut, up from under 70% a month ago, according to CME’s FedWatch tool.
• Data released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas this morning also showed layoff announcements this year totaled the most since 2020, another sign of the labor market’s slowdown.
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC yesterday that the poor ADP numbers were due to the government shutdown and mass deportations — not tariffs.
• Speaking of tariffs, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the Trump administration can replicate the sweeping levies if the Supreme Court rules the president exceeded his authority to enact the duties.
• Follow live markets updates here.

Salesforce blew past earnings per share expectations for the third quarter, sending shares higher in today’s premarket. While the company’s quarterly revenue came in slightly under Wall Street’s consensus forecast, Salesforce offered stronger-than-anticipated revenue guidance for the current three-month period.

Salesforce also said annualized revenue from its Agentforce AI software jumped 330% year over year. The firm set a better-than-expected revenue target of $60 billion for fiscal 2030 for Agentforce.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang returned to Washington, D.C. yesterday to meet with Trump and discuss chip export restrictions. Huang then went to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are weighing whether to approve a rule that would limit AI chip exports.

Huang said the Guaranteeing Access and Innovation for National Artificial Intelligence Act — known as the GAIN AI Act — “is even more detrimental to the United States than the AI Diffusion Act.” Huang also broke with some of his fellow AI executives by slamming state-by-state AI regulation. Such oversight would “drag this industry into a halt” and would “create a national security concern,” he said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hand-picked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is slated to vote today. On the docket: whether to change its longstanding recommendation that babies gets the hepatitis B vaccination within 24 hours of birth.

While it’s unclear how the committee will rule, any change to the recommendation would have major impacts within public health. Some experts caution that doing away with the decades-old recommendation could lead to a higher rate of chronic infections in children.

Meet Sterling Anderson, General Motors‘ new executive vice president and product chief. As CNBC’s Michael Wayland reports, the self-proclaimed “Silicon Valley cowboy” is taking the Detroit automaker by storm.

Anderson’s remit includes overseeing “the end-to-end product lifecycle” of GM’s vehicles, according to the company. He told CNBC that the he wants to see a faster rate of innovation and create a “unified approach” to product.

Also helping General Motors: Trump’s decision to cut tariffs on South Korea. The company is the second-largest new vehicle importer from the country, behind South Korea-based Hyundai Motor.

Delta Air Lines detailed the impact of the government shutdown on its profit. Here’s what the air carrier said:

• Approximate cost to pretax profit: $200 million
• Current-quarter earnings per share impact: 25 cents

— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Jeff Cox, Kevin Breuninger, Jordan Novet, Annie Palmer, Ashley Capoot, Annika Kim Constantino, Mike Wayland and Leslie Josephs contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.