• Three weeks of gains. The NASDAQ rose more than 3%, posting its third weekly gain in a row and joining the S&P 500 in record territory. The S&P 500 saw a gain of 1% for the week while the Dow finished down modestly. It was last week that the Dow saw a record closing high on Wednesday. 
• Large-cap growth stocks are doing well. An index of U.S. large-cap growth stocks outperformed its value counterpart by a wide margin, extending the growth equity style’s year-to-date outperformance. The growth index finished up 3.6% for the week while a value index was down 1.9%.
• A rebound in jobs. The labor market recovered in November, with a report showing a monthly gain of 227,000 jobs. This came ahead of economists’ expectations and was far above the previous month’s upwardly revised figure of 36,000. Relative to October, November’s annual wage growth was unchanged at 4.0%, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2% from 4.1%.
• Bitcoin topped $100k for the first time ever. Bitcoin's price went north of $100,000 for the first time last Thursday. The price briefly reached as high as $103,900 before slipping to around $101,000 on Friday afternoon. At the start of November, Bitcoin was trading around $70,000.
• Q3 earnings have been impressive. Across all S&P 500 sectors, earnings grew by an average of 5.8%—the fifth consecutive quarter of earnings growth.  
• Consumer sentiment rises five months straight. A gauge that tracks U.S. consumer sentiment rose for the fifth month in a row, reaching its highest level since last May. This past Friday’s preliminary reading from the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index showed the gauge rising to 74.0, up from November’s final reading of 71.8.   
• Another important report next week. A Consumer Price Index report is scheduled for release on Wednesday and will give the U.S. Federal Reserve another key data point ahead of its December 17–18 meeting. 
• The housing market to pick up but slowly. 2024 was one of the slowest sales years in decades but 2025 may fare better. “We think it’s going to continue to be a slow climb out,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, which expects existing home sales to rise 1.5% next year to 4.07 million. That figure would still be significantly below the average of 5.28 million homes sold annually between 2013 and 2019.
• 2025 may not be a year of big interest rate cuts. While many anticipate an interest cut in December 2025 may not go so well. "Financial conditions have eased massively. What the Fed runs the risk of here is creating a speculative bubble," Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities, speaking on CNBC's "Squawk Box," said after the report's release. "There's no reason to cut rates right now. They should pause."

• Super Micro Computer (SMCI)
• Palantir Technologies (PLTR)
• Lucid Group (LCID)
• Nvidia (NVDA)
• SoundHound AI (SOUN)

Biggest Gainers

• Asana (ASAN) +43.53%
• DocuSign (DOCU) +27.86%
• Rumble (RUM) +20.57%
• Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR) +23.73%
• Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX) +21.55%

Biggest Losers

• Guidewire Software (GWRE) -14.04%
• Alcoa Corp. (AA) -7.97%
• Paymentus Holdings (PAY) -6.84%
• Alignment Healthcare (ALHC) - 6.64%
• Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN) -7.87%

Weekly Notables

United Healthcare Faced a Challenging Week After CEO Death

Shares of United Healthcare rose but then plummeted following the death and murder of the company's CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday. UnitedHealth Group stock fell 5% on Friday, extending its weekly loss to 10%. This is the U.S.’ most valuable health insurance company’s worst week on Wall Street since March 2020 and its fifth-steepest weekly loss this decade. Other health insurance companies followed suite in declines including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield parent Elevance Health.

• Potential market moving catalysts this week: Big things to look forward to this week include wholesale inventories on Monday from the U.S. Census Bureau. On Tuesday investors can look for productivity and labor costs from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics as well as the Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business. On Wednesday the CPI report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be out as well as the Federal budget from the U.S. Department of Treasury. On Thursday the Producer Price Index will be out as well as the weekly unemployment claims. Friday will wrap up with export and import prices.
• Earnings on deck this week: Oracle, BHP, Toll Brothers, C3.ai, Braze, GameStop Corp., National Steel Company, Dave & Buster's Entertainment, United Natural Foods, and Adobe.
    

Earnings Spotlight: Adobe

Adobe is one of the big reports on deck this week. The creative software developer is set to release its fourth quarter of Fiscal 2024 financials on December 11. Wall Street analysts expect the company to report earnings of $4.67 per share for Q3, up 9.4% year-over-year. Also, analysts expect revenues to increase 10% from the year-ago figure to $5.54 billion, according to TipRanks’ data.