Closing Recap

Friday, November 28, 2025

U.S. stock markets were higher on this final trading day of November, a shortened session due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday in a month that saw much volatility on Fed rate cut expectations, AI valuation coming into question, and the end of the longest government shutdown in history (43 days) that saw a delay in key economic data. Healthcare was the only S&P sector in the “red” while Energy and Financials were the biggest winners followed by Materials, Industrials and REITs in quiet trade and light volumes as mkt breadth was 2.5:1 advancers. The big story today outside of retailer focus on Black Friday sales was an overnight technical issue for CME Group (CME) which halted trade on CME‘s popular EBS currency platform and futures spanning foreign exchange, commodities, Treasuries, and stocks, freezing key benchmarks as brokers pulled products. CME blamed a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers. S&P futures went down at 9:44 PM ET last night and didn’t reopen until 8:30 this morning.

Despite the 5-day win streak for main U.S. averages with todays gains, the Nasdaq Composite ended its seven-month win streak, though the S&P 500 and Dow both managed to extend their win streaks, now to seven months with today’s advance keeping it alive. The Nasdaq last gained seven months in a row in January 2018. The S&P 500 last rose more than six months in a row with a seven-month win streak in August 2021. The Dow last advanced more than six straight months with a 10-month stretch of gains that ended in January 2018. For the week, the S&P 500 gained 3.73%, the Nasdaq climbed 4.91%, and the Dow climbed 3.18%.

Markets now head into December with all eyes on the December 9-10 FOMC policy meeting with rate cuts in the air. Following delayed economic data being reported the last 2 weeks, Fed officials have gone from hawkish in early November to more dovish over the last 5-days especially from Fed’s Williams, Waller, helping boost rate cut expectation for a 25bps cut to an 87% chance from sub 50% just a week ago. Will the Fed be on board with a rate cut? Note in terms of multiple dissents, since late 2019 there have only been three meetings with two dissents, the most recent in October and July. So safe to say the Fed is not on the same page and the meeting could add some more volatility.

Oil prices rise as traders keep an eye on the outcome of an OPEC+ meeting on Sunday for clues about potential output changes. Heading into the OPEC-8 Meeting on Sunday, they are expected to keep production unchanged at the online meeting while focus shifting to long-term capacity math to set 2027 baselines. The group paused output hikes for Q1 2026 after unwinding nearly 6m bpd of voluntary cuts and no policy change are expected. Despite today’s bounce in oil prices, futures contracts posted their fourth monthly loss.

In Sentiment data: The bull-bear spread in the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) weekly survey was -10.7% vs -11% last week. Bulls fall to 32%, from 32.6%, Neutrals rise to 25.3% from 23.9%, Bears fall to 42.7% from 43.6%. This week’s NAAIM Exposure Index rose slightly to 89.92 from last week’s 86.56 – recent 2025 hi of 100.83 was the highest since 7-3-24 – 2025 trough from 4-16 of 35.16 – Last Quarter Average (Q3) of 86.63.

• Precious metals were a notable story today as February gold futures rose more than 1% late day to $4,246 highs (4-month winning streak) while spot silver hits new record high, surpassing October peak by rising over 5% this afternoon to $56.40 an ounce, up 90% year-to-date from $29 in January (silver and gold miners AG, CDE, HL, PAAS) saw strength amid the surge in silver futures.
• The CBOE Volatility index (VIX) declined as low as 15.78 earlier this morning, hitting November lows, before paring losses (off the highs above 28 last week following 5-day market win streak).

• In Footwear: PUMSY shares rise after report China’s Anta Sports is looking to buy the sportswear giant. Shares have more than halved year to date amid an increasingly competitive sportswear market and tariffs hitting customer sentiment. Puma’s biggest shareholder is currently Artemis which holds a 29% stake in the company – Bloomberg https://tinyurl.com/34hejumx
• In Consumer Staples: BUD was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank and upgraded Heineken (HEINY) to Buy from Hold saying following a challenging year for share prices, the European beverages sector offers clear valuation opportunities. Deutsche said they prefer names less affected by structural headwinds as well as companies that can deliver reasonable growth in 2026.

• VNDA said the FDA has requested an extension to complete their review of a partial hold on long-term studies of its experimental motion sickness drug, Tradipitant; says U.S. FDA will now finish its expedited re-examination of the restrictions by December 5, 2025, instead of the original November 26 deadline.

• ServiceNow (NOW) is in advanced talks to buy five-year-old Security startup Veza for more than $1B, according to people with knowledge of the deal, the Information reported. Veza’s subscription software helps businesses see which of their employees, as well as Ai agents that automate software tasks, have access to certain customer or corporate data and what they’re able to do with the data. https://tinyurl.com/2tuuafdz
• INTC shares outperformed in the semiconductor sector after analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF Internation Securities noted on “X”: "Apple’s plan is for Intel to begin shipping its lowest-end M processor, utilizing the 18AP advanced node, as early as 2Q–3Q27, but the actual timeline remains contingent on development progress following the receipt of PDK 1.0/1.1."
• VUZI says it booked and delivered nearly $1M in Q4 follow on orders for its custom M400 smart glasses kits from a MAJOR global online retailer.  The program is expanding from Europe into US and Canadian warehouses, with talks to push the tech into more regions and business units as it’s used for remote equipment diagnostics and faster repairs.