#stock-market

#stock-market

The current dynamics playing out in the stock market are really hard to describe right now. On the one hand, there are pockets of the economy that are red-hot, with hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into high-powered growth trends like AI that are clearly propping up valuations across the board. On the other hand, the vast majority of stocks in the overall market may already be in bear market territory. That's representative of a weakening consumer, and the view that valuations may have gotten a bit too distorted in the post-pandemic era.

As we get ready to jump into the final month of 2025, S&P 500 futures are rallying. Up about 11 points, it's getting set to wrap up what's been a very volatile month. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) is up about $1.65 this morning. The Dow Jones is up about 53, with the NASDAQ up about 72. Granted, we had a rough start to the day. All after CME trading came to a standstill following a cooling issue at one of its data centers.

The day of truth has finally come for the stock market and the AI/Datacenter/Hyperscaler trade, at least for now. NVIDIA Corp. ( NASDAQ: NVDA) will release perhaps the most anticipated set of quarterly results in the last 25 years or more at 5 PM EST today after the close. Wall Street is looking for earnings per share of $1.25 and a median revenue of $55 billion.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( NYSEMKT: VOO) had its worst day in months on Thursday, falling 1.6%, and the selloff appears likely to continue as Friday dawns, with the ETF down another 1% premarket. And why? Your guess is as good as anyone else's. Theories range from worries that artificial intelligence isn't generating the efficiencies it was supposed to (such that investments in AI aren't paying off for companies using it) to fears that AI stocks have been bid up to unsustainable valuations.

Big Tech and other superstars of the U.S. stock market are rallying on Monday, as Wall Street recovers most of its loss from last week. The S&P 500 climbed 1.3% to claw back three-quarters of its drop from last week, which was its first weekly loss in four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 245 points, or 0.5%, as of 1:15 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.1% higher. Nvidia was by far the strongest force lifting the market and rallied 4.8%.

S&P 500 futures are down about 21 points. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF ( SPY) is down about a point. Dow futures are down about 126, as the Nasdaq slips about 112 points. While the day doesn't look bright, keep your eye on the 50-day moving average on the major indices. That moving average has now served as strong support a few times. And if it happens again, the major indices could bounce.

"I'm not going to get ahead of the two leaders who will be meeting in Korea on Thursday, but I can tell you we had a very good two days," Bessent said. "So I would expect that the threat of the 100% [tariff] has gone away, as has the threat of the immediate imposition of the Chinese initiating a worldwide export control regime."

A chart making the rounds on social media has sparked intense debate about the state of the American economy. Since November 2022, when ChatGPT launched, the S&P 500 has surged more than 70% while job openings have plummeted roughly 30%. The juxtaposition has earned the graphic a foreboding nickname: the " scariest chart in the world."​ At first glance, the divergence appears to tell a simple story: that artificial intelligence has fractured the economy, enriching investors while devastating workers.

In May 2025 , Suze Orman predicted that the U.S. stock market will "absolutely skyrocket" through the remainder of the year and into early 2026. She urged long-term investors to stay invested rather than sell due to fear. Orman recommended building a broadly diversified portfolio by holding at least 25 to 50 individual stocks (or using index ETFs) to take advantage of growth. She specifically highlighted large-cap growth stocks and growth-oriented ETFs (e.g., SPYG, VUG) as likely to benefit in the near future.

Last night, the Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Commerce Department was in talks with "several" quantum computing companies over equity stakes in those firms in return for federal funding. Specifically, the Journal said D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti were in discussions with the federal government about the matter. The report stated that Quantum Computing Inc. and the privately held Atom Computing were "considering similar arrangements."

Stocks had been heading for a slight gain in the morning, until Trump took to his social media platform and said he's considering "a massive increase of tariffs" on Chinese imports. He's upset at restrictions China has placed on exports of its rare earths, which are materials that are critical for the manufacturing of everything from consumer electronics to jet engines.

I always believed that Spotify could play an important role in revolutionizing listening around the world, and with more than 700 million users, we've truly charted a new course bringing creativity to every corner of the globe,

Trump's overhaul of the program, by mandating a $100,000 fee for new applications, may disrupt projects of Indian outsources like Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Infosys Ltd. that derive a large chunk of revenue from the US. TCS shares fell as much as 3.4%, the most in more than two months, while Infosys slipped as much as 3.9%. Tech Mahindra Ltd. declined 6.5%.

Whilst gold prices have many drivers, one is the perception that it operates as a haven that investors buy in times of fear. After all, it doesn't pay a dividend or a coupon, and over the very long term, it's struggled to compete with other asset returns. This September, gold prices exceeded their previous inflation-adjusted peak from January 1980. That was a time when the US was heading into recession, driven by a huge monetary tightening by the Fed under Paul Volcker, aiming to get inflation down. So historically, high gold prices haven't exactly been associated with rampant optimism," Allen told clients in a note this morning.