Updates to afternoon trading

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Dec 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday, with technology shares easing after recent sharp gains and investors bracing for Friday's jobs report, but all three indexes remained close to the previous session's closing high.

The S&P 500 technology index .SPLRCT was down 0.3% from the record closing high on Wednesday, when both other major U.S. stock indexes also notched closing highs.

Shares of UnitedHealth UNH.N were down 4.7% and the stock the biggest weight on the Dow and S&P 500. On Wednesday , Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance unit, was killed outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel in what police described as a targeted attack.

Forecasters believe Friday's employment report will show nonfarm payrolls increased by 200,000 jobs in November, a Reuters survey showed. In October, payrolls rose 12,000, the smallest rise since December 2020.

Data earlier in the day showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week.

Daniel Morgan, portfolio manager at Synovus Trust in Atlanta, Georgia, said investors are digesting economic data and looking ahead to Friday's employment report.

"Obviously the Street is going to be trading on what the Fed is going to do," he said. "Also, there is a new administration coming in that's going to be friendly to the stock market and the economy."

On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy is stronger now than the central bank had expected when it started cutting rates in September, and he appeared to signal support for a slower pace of reductions.

Markets are pricing in about a 70% chance of a 25-bp rate cut this month, and a 30% chance of a pause.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 174.96 points, or 0.39%, to 44,839.08, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 4.55 points, or 0.07%, to 6,081.94 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 1.93 points, or 0.01%, to 19,733.18.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's win in the Nov. 5 elections helped to lift stocks in November as investors cheered his talk of tax cuts and looser regulation.

Shares of Synopsys SNPS.O fell 12.2% after the chip design software firm forecast fiscal 2025 revenue below Wall Street expectations, in part due to a slump in China sales.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks lost steam after surging earlier in the day when bitcoin BTC=, the world's largest cryptocurrency, stormed above the $100,000 mark for the first time.

MicroStrategy MSTR.O, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, was down 3.9%.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.14-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 330 new highs and 65 new lows on the NYSE.

On the Nasdaq, 1,592 stocks rose and 2,684 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.69-to-1 ratio.

(Additional reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Maju Samuel)

((caroline.valetkevitch@thomsonreuters.com))