Early Look

Monday, December 1, 2025

After surging last week, U.S. futures are looking lower to kick off the new trading week as investors return from their Thanksgiving Day holidays weekend, with biggest losses overnight in the tech heavy Nasdaq. For last week, the S&P 500 gained 3.73%, the Nasdaq climbed 4.91%, and the Dow climbed 3.18%. For the month the S&P 500 gained 0.13% (extending its winning streak to 7-months), the Nasdaq declined 1.51% (snapping its winning streak at 7-months), and the Dow climbed 0.32% (extending its winning streak to 7-months, the longest since a 10-month stretch of gains that ended in January 2018. In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index fell -950 points to 49,303, the Shanghai Index gained 25 points to 3,914, and the Hang Seng Index rose 174 points to 26,033. Stocks and bond prices fell in Japan, where the central-bank governor signaled interest rates could rise later this month. In Europe, the German DAX is down -316 points to 23,520, while the FTSE 100 slips -5 points to 9,714. Oil prices are higher with WTI crude up about 2% after OPEC+ holds output steady and Ukraine strikes Russian refineries; precious metals extend gains with silver making new highs and gold jumping while Bitcoin prices drop nearly -5% below $86.5K and Ethereum under $2.9K. A moderately busy week of economic data and some late cycle earnings results in tech mid-week, but over the weekend, attention was to retailers and Black Friday spending, leading up to Cyber Monday retail deals. President Trump said Sunday he has decided his nominee to replace Chair Jerome Powell, without giving a name.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 289.30 points, or 0.61%, to 47,716.42
• The Nasdaq Composite gained 151.00 points, or 0.65%, to 23,365.69
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 14.32 points, or 0.58%, to 2,500.43

• 10:00 AM ET ISM Manufacturing PMI for November…est. 49.0

• Earnings After the Close: CANG CRDO MDB SLP VSTS

• Goldman Sachs Japan Conference 2025, 12/1-12/5, in Tokyo

• Japan’s two-year government bond yield rose to a 17-year high late Sunday night on caution for the Bank of Japan’s early interest hike, with the market awaiting comments from the central bank governor later in the day. The two-year JGB yield rose 1 basis point (bp) to 1%, its highest level since June 2008 and 5 years to 1.345%.
• Hurricane season ends with no US landfalls for first time since 2015, marking a rare break. The only storm that made landfall in the US was Tropical Storm Chantal, which moved onshore near Litchfield Beach. It did bring excessive rainfall and flooding to parts of the Grand Strand and southeastern North Carolina.

• Casinos: Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Melco Resorts (MLCO). Macau’s gaming bureau reported that November gross revenue from games of fortune in the region was up 14.4% year-over-year to 21.088B patacas but was a 12.45% decline from October 2025’s record high of 24.08 billion patacas. Year-to-date, Cumulative GGR totaled 226.51 billion patacas (US$28.35 billion), putting the full-year total on track to exceed the government’s revised forecast of 228 billion patacas.
• Somnigroup International Inc. (SGI) said it submitted a proposal to acquire all outstanding common shares of Leggett & Platt (LEG) in an all-stock where shareholders would receive shares of Somnigroup common stock with a market value of $12.00 for every one share of Leggett & Platt common stock.
• Li Auto (LI) said it delivered 33,181 vehicles in November 2025. As of November 30, 2025, Li Auto’s cumulative deliveries reached 1,495,969; company expects the monthly production capacity for Li i6 to reach 20,000 units by early next year and plans to release OTA 8.1 in early December 2025.
• Nio Inc. (NIO) said 36,275 vehicles were delivered in November 2025, increasing by 76.3% y/y; 277,893 vehicles were delivered year-to-date in 2025, increasing by 45.6% y/y; Cumulative deliveries reached 949,457 as of November 30, 2025.
  Xpeng (XPEV) announced it delivered 36,728 Smart EVs in November 2025, representing a y/y increase of 19%. From January to November 2025, XPENG’s cumulative deliveries reached 391,937 units, up 156% y/y. XPENG’s overseas deliveries from January to November 2025 reached 39,773 units, marking a 95% y/y increase.
• Starbucks (SBUX) workers’ union expanded its strike, demanding better pay and staffing from 65 stores to over 120, Reuters reports.

• Airbus (EADSY) shares fell after reports that the company has discovered an industrial quality issue regarding dozens of A320-family aircraft. The flaw, which is said to affect the aircraft’s fuselage panels, is delaying some deliveries but there are no immediate indications that it has reached aircraft in service, Reuters reported.
• New Fortress Energy (NFE) shares rise 20% after regulators in Puerto Rico said late Friday, they had tentatively approved a contract with the embattled liquefied natural gas supplier, which has faced questions about its ballooning debt.
• Old Dominion (ODFL) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital saying the company has maintaining industry-leading service levels, strong pricing power, and ample capacity to capture recovery during the freight recession.
• Planet Labs (PL) announced the launch of its Pelican-5 and Pelican-6 satellites, along with 36 SuperDoves of Flock 4H.
• Precious metal prices (gold and silver) extend gains with silver at new record highs and lifting gold/silver miner stocks AG, AEM, CDE, HL, NEM, PAAS WPM.

• Crypto stocks were sliding (COIN, MSTR, MARA, RIOT, HOOD, IBIT) following another selloff in Bitcoin, which has dropped 5% over the past 24 hours to fall back below $90,000 to around $86,500.
• Klarna (KLAR), Afterpay, and Affirm (AFRM): Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) usage surged this Black Friday, rising 9% overall, with adoption especially strong among younger consumers: 41% of shoppers aged 16–24 used BNPL, and younger millennials increased their usage by an astonishing 87% compared with last year – Reuters.

• UnitedHealth Group (UNH) has agreed to sell its last South American business Banmedica to Brazilian private equity group Patria Investments (PAX) for $1 billion, Reuters reported Sunday citing sources.

• Disney’s (DIS) “Zootopia 2” tallied an estimated $156 million domestically over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Comcast’s (CMCSA) Universal’s “Wicked: For Good” added around $93 million to the domestic box office haul during the five-day frame.
• Micron Technology (MU) will invest 1.5 trillion yen ($9.6 billion) to build a new plant in Hiroshima in western Japan to produce advanced high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. The U.S. chipmaker aims to start construction at an existing site in May next year and begin shipments around 2028.