Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures retreat from rally in downbeat start to December

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US stock futures retreated on Monday, as bitcoin's (BTC-USD) slump deepened and Wall Street's strong late-November rebound looked set to hit a speed bump on the first trading day of December.

Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) futures slid roughly 0.5%, after the blue-chip benchmark led Wall Street indexes to a fifth day of gains on Friday. Contracts on the S&P 500 (ES=F) dropped 0.6%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) fell 0.7%.

Bitcoin fell sharply, in another sign that markets are kicking December off in a risk-off mood. The leading cryptocurrency dropped as much as 6% in Asian trading, to below $86,000, before retracing some losses.

Meanwhile, all the "Magnificent Seven" megacap stocks edged lower, led by drops of over 1% for Nvidia (NVDA), Meta (META), and Tesla (TSLA) shares.

December is typically a strong month for stocks, but strategists say the so-called Santa rally may not happen this year after a string of events — not least President Trump's tariff push — kept uncertainty high. That has led stocks to buck the usual seasonal trends throughout 2025, analysts say.

Focus is still on the Federal Reserve's path for interest rates, even as over 85% of bets ride on a quarter-point reduction at policymakers' meeting next week. The Thanksgiving week rally was fueled in large part by rising hopes for a cut and lower borrowing costs, on the back of supportive comments from Fed officials. But the central bank has now entered a blackout ahead of its gathering.

That puts the spotlight on economic data to set expectations for rates, as releases continue to flow back to normal post-government shutdown. Monday brings a reading on November manufacturing activity, ahead of updates on services activity and the jobs market in coming days. But the highlight comes Friday, with the delayed arrival of September's Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge.

Wall Street is also bracing for a potential change of leadership at the Fed, after a year of Trump butting heads with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Trump said Sunday he has made his choice for replacing Powell, telling reporters: "I know who I am going to pick, yeah." Trump didn't give a name, though White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett is seen as most likely.

• 33 mins ago Karen Friar

  Stocks drift back towards record highs as the final month of 2025 gets underway: What to watch this week

  Yahoo Finance's Jake Conley takes a look at the key events for markets this week.

  He reports:

  The final month of the year gets underway on Monday, and investors will be looking for a smoother month to round out the year after choppy November trading saw the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) snap a seven-month winning streak while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) moved back to within 1% of a record high.

  ... In the week ahead, investor focus will remain on the odds of a rate cut at the Federal Reserve's December meeting, with traders currently predicting an 86.9% chance of a quarter-point cut. The Fed entered its mandatory blackout period on Saturday, marking the start of a quiet week and a half before the Federal Open Market Committee meets on Dec. 9-10.

  Reports this past week also suggested that the Trump administration is getting closer to landing on a candidate to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Fed, with Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, appearing to have emerged as the frontrunner for the nomination.

  The economic calendar will continue a slow normalization after the 43-day US government shutdown threw data collection into chaos, with private reports on US manufacturing activity, service sector activity, and ADP's monthly private payrolls report featured.

  On the corporate earnings side, bargain retailers Dollar Tree (DLTR), Dollar General (DG), and Five Below (FIVE) are all reporting, while Salesforce (CRM) and CrowdStrike (CRWD) will feature from the tech industry.

  Read more here.

• 40 mins ago Jenny McCall

  Premarket trenders: Coupang, New Fortress Energy and Strategy

  South Korea's largest e-retailer Coupang Inc. (CPNG) stock fell 8% in premarket trading on Monday following a massive data leak. This latest break caps what is set to be a record year for online leaks in the country, highlighting weaknesses in Seoul’s cyber defenses.

  New Fortress Energy (NFE) stock soared 22% before the bell on Monday. The liquefied natural gas supplier, which has faced questions over its rising debt, had a contract approved with Puerto Rico regulators late Friday.

  Strategy (MSTR) stock fell 4% during premarket trading on Monday. The software company, which is one of the largest investors of bitcoin has suffered due to the crypto selloff.

• Today at 10:45 AM UTC Karen Friar

  Silver jumps to extend its record-beating rally

  Silver (SI=F) jumped near-on 2% to a fresh all-time peak on Monday as traders eyed tight supply and optimism for a US interest-rate cut in December.

  The metal was trading above $58 an ounce, having surged almost 6% on Friday to a record high.

  Bloomberg reports:

  [Silver] has climbed for six consecutive days and doubled in value this year, outpacing a roughly 60% rally in gold (GC=F).

  A record amount of the metal flowed into London in October to ease a historic squeeze in the world’s biggest silver trading hub, but this has put other centers under pressure. Inventories in warehouses linked to the Shanghai Futures Exchange recently hit their lowest in nearly a decade, and the cost of borrowing the metal over one month remains elevated.

  Both metals have also got a boost from increased expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in December. .... The release of economic data delayed by the US government’s six-week shutdown has also supported the case for lower borrowing costs, which typically benefit non-yielding precious metals.

  Read more here.

• Today at 10:30 AM UTC Karen Friar

  'I don't know if we'll get that Santa rally': Why Wall Street says December may break from its usual strength

  Yahoo Finance's Allie Canal reports:

  The Santa Claus rally is usually one of Wall Street’s favorite holiday traditions. Stocks tend to grind higher after Thanksgiving, volatility fades, and December often delivers one of the strongest months of the year.

  This year, strategists say, Santa may not show up.

  “None [of the months this year] have behaved the way they have seasonally," Amy Wu Silverman, head of derivatives strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told Yahoo Finance.

  And there are plenty of reasons why. The year has offered reminder after reminder that this isn’t a normal market cycle: The DeepSeek meltdown in February; President Trump’s surprise tariff announcement in April; and months of hand-wringing over AI valuations.

  Those helped create a roller-coaster ride for investors that pushed stocks to record highs, before volatility resurfaced again in recent weeks.

  This has been a year when the traditional playbook hasn’t worked because the rules of the game are changing in real time. AI has introduced a level of disruption and uncertainty that strategists say is fundamentally different from anything in the past decade.

  Read more here.

• Today at 10:00 AM UTC Karen Friar

  Oil gains as traders eye risks from attack on key Black Sea terminal, Venezuela tensions

  Bloomberg reports:

  Oil rose as a key pipeline linking Kazakh fields to Russia’s Black Sea coast halted loading after one of its three moorings was damaged in an attack over the weekend.

  Brent (BZ=F) traded above $63. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium carries most of Kazakhstan’s crude exports, which have averaged 1.6 million barrels a day so far this year.

  Ukraine hasn’t commented on the incident at the CPC facility, although it confirmed separate attacks on an oil refinery and tankers over the weekend.

  The incident came after the OPEC+ producer-group led by Saudi Arabia reiterated a three-month plan to halt output hikes in the first quarter of next year. OPEC+ again said the move reflected weaker seasonal market conditions. A major surplus is expected in the early part of next year.

  Oil posted a fourth consecutive monthly drop in November as expectations for a swelling surplus weighed on the outlook, with the International Energy Agency forecasting a record glut in 2026. Still, geopolitical tensions from Russia to Venezuela — where President Trump warned airspace should be considered closed over the weekend, add to the bullish risks for prices.

  Read more here.

• Today at 9:55 AM UTC Karen Friar

  ChatGPT was unveiled 3 years ago, kicking off the AI revolution. For investors, it did even more.

  Yahoo Finance's Myles Udland reports:

  The three-year anniversary of ChatGPT's release was on Sunday.

  For investors and the corporate world, a lot more than three years' worth of change has followed.

  Stock prices have soared. Workflows have changed. Staffing needs have been radically altered. A massive domestic infrastructure buildout is underway.

  The economy has become increasingly K-shaped, with the distance widening between the financial haves and have-nots in both the corporate and consumer realms.

  SNP - Delayed Quote • USD (^GSPC) Follow View Quote Details 6,849.09 +36.48 +(0.54%) At close: November 28 at 2:13:29 PM EST Advanced Chart

  The transformed state of the economy and markets is remarkable on its own merits. But against the backdrop of the markets from which this artificial intelligence boom emerged, the turnaround is even more impressive.

  Simply put, ChatGPT didn't just catalyze the biggest technological boom in a generation; it offered a catalyst to turn around one of the lousiest market environments investors had been dealing with since the financial crisis.

  ... And it is with this context that the doubt which has seemed to dog this bull run becomes more explicable.

  Read more here in this takeaway from Morning Brief.

• Today at 2:58 AM UTC Rian Howlett

  Bitcoin leads crypto sell-off as coin drops below $87,000

  Cryptocurrencies fell early Monday morning as a week of sell-off continued despite appearing to stablize at the end of last week.

  CCC - CoinMarketCap • USD (BTC-USD) Follow View Quote Details 85,820.42 -5,470.09 (-5.99%) As of 12:31:00 PM UTC. Market Open. Advanced Chart

  Bloomberg reports:

  Read more here.