Early Look

Friday, December 19, 2025

U.S. futures are looking higher overnight, getting a boost from technology as Nasdaq futures extend prior days gains in a rebound for semiconductors and Ai players as major averages try to avoid a weekly loss. In earnings, shares of Fed-ex (FDX) and Nike (NKE) shares slump following quarterly results overnight, while Oracle (ORCL) shares rise after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance signed binding agreements to hand control of the short video app’s U.S. operations to a group of investors, including Oracle. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index surged 505 points to 49,507, the Shanghai Index gained 14 points to 3,890, and the Hang Seng Index advanced 192 points to 25,690. In Europe, the German DAX is up 14 points to 24,213, while the FTSE 100 slips a few points to 9,834. The Japanese yen fell against the dollar after The Bank of Japan raised interest rates on Friday to levels unseen in three decades and signalled its readiness for further hikes, taking another landmark step in ending decades of huge monetary support and near-zero borrowing costs.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 65.88 points, or 0.14%, to 47,951.85
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 313.04 points, or 1.38%, to 23,006.36
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 15.57 points, or 0.62% to 2,507.87

• 10:00 AM ET                University of Michigan Confidence, Dec-Final…est. 53.4
• 10:00 AM ET                University of Michigan 1-yr and 5-yr inflation expectations
• 10:00 AM ET                Dallas Fed PCE for October
• 1:00 PM ET                   Baker Hughes Weekly rig count data

• Preliminary China data shows December narrow passenger car retail ~2.3m, up 3.4% m/m, down 12.7% y/y; preliminary data shows December EV retail estimated at ~1.38m, penetration expected at 60%.
• The European Union has agreed to provide Ukraine with a 90 billion euro loan but will not immediately use frozen Russian assets to secure it.
• Venezuela is facing one of the world’s largest unresolved sovereign defaults, with total external debt estimated between $150-$170 billion due to economic collapse and U.S. sanctions.

• Coty (COTY) said it sold its remaining 25.8% stake in hair care brand Wella to KKR (KKR) for $750 million, while retaining rights to a share of any future sale or initial public offering proceeds. Coty said it is entitled to 45% of any proceeds from a sale or IPO of the business once KKR’s preferred return is met.
• KB Homes (KBH) shares fell; Q4 adj EPS $1.92 vs est $1.80 on revs $1.694B vs est $1.658B, housing adj gr mgn 17.8%, net orders 2,414; homes delivered 3,619; guides Q1 deliveries 2,300-2,500; housing revs $1.05-1.15B vs est $1.15B; sees FY deliveries 11,000-12,500 and housing revs $5.1-6.1B vs est $5.831B.
• Mission Produce (AVO) Q4 adj EPS $0.31 vs est $0.24, adj EBITDA $41.4Mm vs est $34.9Mm on revs $319Mm vs est $296.25Mm; for fiscal 2026, total capital expenditure is expected to be about $40M; announced a planned leadership succession and Board refreshment to take effect around its 2026 Annual Meeting.
• Scholastic Corp. (SCHL) Q2 adj EPS $2.57 vs est $2.07, adj EBITDA $122.5Mm vs est $109.76Mm on revs $551.1Mm vs est $556.72Mm; board authorizes $150M share repurchase; said anticipates full-year revenue in line or modestly above prior year and 2026 free cash flow to exceed $430M.

• Energy Transfer (ET) said it was suspending the development of its Lake Charles liquefied natural gas export facility in Louisiana to focus on allocating funds to natural gas pipeline projects; said it remains open to discussions with third parties who may have an interest in developing the project.
• Heico (HEI) Q4 sales $1.20B vs. consensus $1.17B; Q4 operating margin 23.1%

• Oracle (ORCL) shares rise after TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance signed binding agreements to hand control of the short video app’s U.S. operations to a group of investors, including Oracle. Under the agreement, American and global investors including cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will hold an 80.1% stake in the new TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, while ByteDance will retain 19.9%.
• U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has launched a review that could result in the first shipments to China of Nvidia’s (NVDA) second-most powerful AI chips, Reuters reported citing sources, making good on his pledge to allow the controversial sales. Trump this month said he would allow sales of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, with the U.S. government collecting a 25% fee.
• TeraWulf Inc. (WULF) announced the successful pricing of project-level financing for their previously disclosed 168 MW high-performance computing (HPC) joint venture at the Abernathy, Texas campus. The financing supports the development of a next-generation, liquid-cooled AI data center delivering up to 240 MW of gross power capacity (168 MW of critical IT load) under a long-term hosting structure.
• WhiteFiber, Inc. (WYFI) announced its subsidiary, Enovum Data Centers Corp., has executed a long-term colocation agreement with Nscale Global Holdings; announce 10-year, 40 mw colocation agreement representing approximately $865M in total contract value at NC-1 Ai data center campus.