S&P 500 – 6,834.50 (+0.88%)

Dow Jones – 48,134.89 (+0.38%)

NASDAQ – 23,307.62 (+1.31%)

• U.S. Equities: Stocks closed higher Friday, extending Thursday’s modest gains across all major indexes.
• Bond Market: Treasury yields rose modestly across the curve, with the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield around 4.15%, remaining within the 4.0%–4.5% range seen for most of 2025.
• International Markets: Global equities performed strongly in 2025, with Germany, France, the U.K., and Japan all hitting record highs.
• Jobs Report: Nonfarm payrolls fell 105,000 in October but rebounded with a 64,000 gain in November, exceeding economists’ expectations of +40–50K; October losses were mainly due to federal government cutbacks.
• Retail Sales: Headline retail sales in October came in flat (0.0% vs. +0.1% expected), while sales ex-autos rose slightly more than expected (+0.4% vs. +0.3%).
• Inflation: October Consumer Price Index (CPI) matched monthly estimates (+0.2%), but annual figures surprised to the downside—headline +2.7% vs. +3.1% expected, core +2.6% vs. +3.0% expected.
• Jobless Claims: Initial jobless claims fell 13,000 to 224,000, slightly below forecasts of 225,000. Continuing claims rose to 1.897M, under the 1.93M estimate.
• Oracle (ORCL): Shares jumped after reports that TikTok agreed to sell its U.S. operations to a joint venture partially controlled by Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX.
• Micron Technology (MU): The stock extended its post-earnings rally following strong revenue and earnings beats. High demand for Micron’s AI-focused memory chips continues to drive growth.
• Nvidia (NVDA) Review: The U.S. government is reportedly reviewing sales of advanced Nvidia AI chips to China.
• Lockheed Martin (LMT): Shares slipped after JPMorgan downgraded the stock to neutral from overweight, citing pension-related cash flow headwinds in 2027.
• Lyft (LYFT): Stock fell after a downgrade to underperform from Wedbush, highlighting risks from autonomous vehicle disruption and reliance on the U.S. ridesharing market.
• Lamb Weston (LW): Shares dropped despite beating quarterly earnings and revenue expectations and issuing above-consensus guidance for fiscal 2026.
• KB Home (KBH): Stock slid despite strong quarterly results; declines in home deliveries, lower profits, and weak new orders weighed on investor sentiment.
• Palo Alto Networks (PANW): Gained after announcing an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to secure AI workloads and support AI-driven security operations.
• Winnebago (WGO): Shares surged following better-than-expected earnings results.
• Cryptocurrency-Linked Moves: Bitcoin futures rose nearly 3%, lifting Strategy (MSTR) by ~3% and Coinbase (COIN) by ~2%, ahead of $23 billion in bitcoin options set to expire next Friday. Volatility for bitcoin and other digital assets increased this week.
• JPMorgan Blockchain Initiatives: JPMorgan continues expanding its use of blockchain by tokenizing real-world assets, including a $50M commercial paper issuance for Galaxy Digital on Solana and launching its first tokenized money market fund, MONY, on Ethereum.
• Tech Partnership: Palo Alto Networks deepened its Google Cloud partnership to secure AI workloads.
• Corporate Bankruptcy: iRobot bankruptcy highlighted the growing risks for struggling tech firms.
• Board Resignation: Dina Powell McCormick resigned from Meta board after eight months.
• AI Investment: SoftBank races to complete $22.5 billion OpenAI investment by year-end.
• Education: Federal student loan system faces major overhaul starting in 2026.

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“Student loans shouldn’t be a lifetime sentence for students trying to build their futures.” - Senator Elizabeth Warren

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Notable Stocks

• Palo Alto Networks (PANW)
• Oracle (ORCL)
• Google (GOOGL)
• Meta Platforms (META)
• Micron (MU)

Weekly Notables

SoftBank Rushes to Complete $22.5 Billion OpenAI Funding by Year-End

SoftBank is racing to fulfill a $22.5 billion funding commitment to OpenAI by the end of the year, tapping asset sales and other financing options as it doubles down on artificial intelligence, according to sources familiar with the matter. To raise cash, SoftBank has sold its entire $5.8 billion stake in Nvidia, trimmed $4.8 billion from its holdings in T-Mobile, reduced staffing, and slowed dealmaking across its Vision Fund. Any new investment above $50 million now reportedly requires direct approval from CEO Masayoshi Son.

Palo Alto Networks Expands Multibillion-Dollar Partnership with Google Cloud

Palo Alto Networks announced Friday that it has signed a new multibillion-dollar agreement with Google Cloud, expanding the companies’ existing strategic partnership and deepening their engineering collaboration. As part of the deal, Palo Alto Networks will migrate key internal workloads to Google Cloud and adopt Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence models to power its cybersecurity copilots. The company will also leverage Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to support AI-driven security capabilities.

Earnings Spotlight

Earnings Spotlight: Citius Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CTXR)

Citius Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CTXR) has an estimated earnings date of Friday, December 26, 2025, for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2025 (Q4 2025). Analysts are forecasting an EPS of approximately -$0.24 for the current quarter ending September 2025. For the next fiscal year (2026), earnings are expected to grow significantly, with some analysts forecasting a profit of $1.90 per share

What's Ahead

Economic:

• Monday (Dec. 22): no reports
• Tuesday (Dec. 23): Capacity Utilization, Durable Orders, Q3 GDP – Advanced Reading, Industrial Production, New Home Sales
• Wednesday (Dec. 24): Continuing Claims, EIA Crude Oil Inventories, EIA Natural Gas Inventories, Initial Claims, MBA Mortgage Applications Index
• Thursday (Dec. 25): no reports
• Friday (Dec. 26): no reports

Earnings:

• Monday (Dec. 22): Bright Minds Biosciences Inc. (DRUG), Ennis Inc. (EBF)
• Tuesday (Dec. 23): Bridgeline Digital Inc (BLIN), Limoneira Co. (LMNR)
• Wednesday (Dec. 24): no reports
• Thursday (Dec. 25): no reports
• Friday (Dec. 26): Citius Pharmaceuticals Inc. (CTXR), Outlook Therapeutics Inc. (OTLK)