Wall Street Today | Jerome Powell Signals Fed Prepared to Slow Rate-Rise Pace in December

Inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increased at a 2.9% annualized rate during the period. That reflected upward revisions to consumer and business spending, and compares with a previously reported 2.6% advance. Meanwhile, another key official gauge of activity rose at a 0.3% rate in the third quarter after falling 0.8% in the prior period.

Across the economy, adjusted pretax corporate profits decreased 1.1% last quarter, marking the first decline since 2020, and were up 4.4% from a year earlier.

Hiring at US companies cooled in November to the slowest pace in nearly two years and wage gains moderated, suggesting employers may be starting to hit the brakes amid a darkening economic outlook.

Businesses' payrolls rose 127,000 this month, the smallest gain since January 2021, according to data from ADP Research Institute in collaboration with Stanford Digital Economy Lab.

Apartment rents across the US dropped in November by the most in at least five years, a sign that a key cost tracked by the Federal Reserve could be easing up. A national index of rents fell by 1%, the third straight month-over-month decline and the steepest drop in data going back to 2017, Apartment List said in a blog post Tuesday.