Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

• Stocks rebounded Monday, with AI shares leading the way after a crushing week for tech investors.
• Retail investors likely bought the dip aggressively last week, with S&P 500 ETF inflows rising sharply as the index slid, according to an analysis by UBS.
  

The gloom that has hung over Wall Street in recent weeks showed signs of dissipating on Monday. 

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up about 2.4% in recent trading, leading the major indexes higher after lagging during Friday’s rally. Big tech shares and many of Wall Street’s favorite AI stocks were among Monday’s top gainers, with chipmakers Broadcom (AVGO) and Micron (MU) each up more than 7% and all of the Magnificent Seven stocks in the green. 

Dip-buying retail investors may be partly responsible. Money poured into S&P 500 exchange-traded funds last week while the index slumped, according to a UBS note, while ETF inflows as a percent of assets under management climbed to their highest level this year—both signs, the analysts wrote, of individual-investor optimism. And inflows into leveraged funds accelerated throughout the sell-off, according to Deutsche Bank analysts, another potential sign of retail's confidence.

There are signs of improving investor sentiment, particularly among retail investors, heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. Retail investor behavior often reflects market sentiment, or vibes, as they usually lack the detailed market data and sophisticated algorithms of institutional investors. Sentiment is itself one of the main drivers of stock market returns.

Stocks sold off last week as concerns about an AI bubble and uncertainty about the trajectory of monetary policy weighed on sentiment. The S&P 500 lost nearly 2% and the Nasdaq dropped 2.7%. Equity positioning turned underweight—indicating caution—for the first time since July, according to Deutsche Bank.

Chief among investors’ concerns was whether the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next month. Signs of a weakening labor market argue for a cut, while evidence that inflation is accelerating well above the Fed's 2% target could drive caution. 

Rate-cut expectations jumped all over the place last week. The September jobs report—the last piece of official labor market data policymakers are likely to see before they meet—sent mixed signals, causing expectations to plummet. But they rebounded Friday when one Fed official indicated he was open to cutting. As of Monday, market participants put the odds of a December rate cut at about 77%, up from just 30% last Wednesday.

Investors are also debating whether the AI boom that’s fueled the bull market is a perilous bubble. A stronger-than-expected earnings report from chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) last week wasn’t enough to put those fears to bed. AI stocks continued to slump following the report, and many missed out on Friday’s rally entirely. 

Calm returned to markets Monday. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX), known as Wall Street's “Fear Index,” recently stood at about 21, a tick above the level associated with smooth sailing for stocks. And CNN’s Fear & Greed index, which tracks seven market metrics to gauge the prevailing sentiment among investors, looked less scary after notching its most pessimistic reading since early April.

Last week's AAII Sentiment Survey of individual investors, meanwhile, also showed a slightly more optimistic outlook than seen a week earlier, when nearly half of respondents were bearish.

Economic data this week could test that calm. Investors will be watching jobless claims data on Wednesday for a clearer picture of the state of the job market. And the Producer Price Index for September, due Tuesday, should fill out the Fed's picture of inflation; it's likely to be the last inflation data released before the Fed makes its rate decision. 

• Kohl's appointed Michael Bender as CEO on Monday after Bender spent the past six months as interim CEO.
• The retailer is trying to regain its standing with long-time shoppers by focusing on private labels, jewelry and petite sizes.

Kohl’s new CEO is on a charm offensive, pursuing shoppers with private labels and jewelry.

Michael Bender on Monday secured the role full time after helping Kohl’s (KSS) regain some footing as its interim CEO. He steps into the big chair at the retail chain, which had begun to struggle—according to its last CEO, Ashley Buchanan—as it overlooked items that were popular with long-time customers and tried to appeal to a new audience. Buchanan developed a plan to revive the business, but was fired seven weeks later, leaving much of the implementation to Bender.

Despite the leadership shakeups, Kohl’s had some success with the plan, which calls for focusing more on jewelry, private labels and petite sizes. The company posted second-quarter results that surpassed expectations and raised its outlook in August.

Kohl's is one of several retailers trying to win over consumers by offering them more value. Companies are cutting prices, and in some cases accepting smaller profit margins, as they try to entice consumers who have grown cautious with their spending.

“While we're pleased by our recent progress, we're deeply motivated to accelerate our transformation," Bender said in a statement Monday.

Kohl's shares were recently up 2%, putting them up 12% so far this year. Still, company shares have lost 8% in the past year and are trading for a fraction of what they sold for in 2022.

Kohl's is adjusting its merchandise, emphasizing value and enhancing the in-store experience, Bender said on a conference call in August. The company is expanding its fashion and home goods lines and broadening the applicability of coupons, he said. Kohl's is also adjusting store layouts and taking steps to avoid running out of sought-after items.

Reintroducing petite sizes and leaning into Kohl's brands like Sonoma and Lauren Conrad has improved the company's standing with women, Bender said in August. Adding impulse buys, bolstering fashion jewelry and experimenting with fine jewelry has also helped, he said.

Bender is slated to discuss Kohl's third-quarter results with investors on Tuesday morning.

• Wedbush upgraded Carvana stock to outperform, calling the company the "new used car king."
• Analysts at Wedbush see Carvana passing rival CarMax in unit vehicle volume in the fourth quarter of next year.

Shares of auto retailer Carvana (CVNA) jumped Monday after Wedbush upgraded the stock, calling the company the “new used car king.”

Wedbush raised its rating to “outperform” from “neutral,” and lifted the price target from $380 to $400. The stock was up 6% at around $328 in recent trading.

Analysts say Carvana’s momentum is accelerating fast enough to overtake rival CarMax sooner than expected. The upgrade from Wedbush indicates rising confidence in Carvana’s growth trajectory. The call comes as Carvana stock has already surged this year, while shares of CarMax have tumbled.

In a note to clients, the analysts pointed to the poor performance of the company’s biggest rival, CarMax (KMX), as a reason for a recent decline in Carvana’s shares. They argued the pullback—Carvana was trading around $400 in late July—was overdone, “and investors should take advantage of this period of relative weakness.”

The analysts added that signs indicate that Carvana “will achieve a leading market position by unit volume in 4Q26,” noting that “momentum has shifted” to the company in recent weeks, with estimates suggesting Carvana “will surpass CarMax’s quarterly used unit volumes six months earlier than initially forecasted.”

Wedbush now sees the Carvana’s current quarter revenue of $5.2 billion, up about 3% from its previous outlook.

Carvana shares have jumped about 60% in 2025, while CarMax shares have slumped roughly 55%.

Major U.S. equities indexes climbed Monday afternoon as tech stocks rallied, and as optimism about a rate cut by the Federal Reserve next month grew. The Dow rose 0.4% and the S&P 500 added 1.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged over 2%.

Tesla's (TSLA) stock popped 7%, making it one of the top performers in the S&P 500 Monday after CEO Elon Musk posted on social media over the weekend that the company plans to build more AI chips than all others combined. 

Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) jumped over 5% to an all-time high, extending their recent gains amid excitement about the tech giant’s Gemini 3 AI model launched last week.

Centene (CNC), Elevance Health (ELV), and Molina Healthcare (MOH) shares all rose following reports President Trump would back a health care proposal extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Carvana (CVNA) shares surged nearly 7% following an upgrade to "outperform" from "neutral" by analysts at Wedbush, who called the vehicle retailer the “new used car king.”

Novo Nordisk (NVO) sank after the drugmaker said its latest drug trial was not effective in slowing the progression of Alzheimer's.

Performance Food Group (PFGC) shares dropped as the food distributor and rival US Foods (USFD) agreed to call off merger talks. Shares of US Foods were higher. 

Gold prices ticked higher, and crude oil futures slid. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged lower to 4.05%. The U.S. dollar was up on the pound and yen, but lost ground to the euro. Most major cryptocurrencies traded lower.

• Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares are falling sharply Monday after the drugmaker said its latest drug trial was not effective in slowing the progression of Alzheimer's.
• The company was testing whether semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, could slow the cognitive decline of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares tumbled Monday morning after the Danish drugmaker posted the latest results from a drug trial.

The company had been looking to determine whether semaglutide, the active ingredient in weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, could also slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. The trial's goal was to slow the decline by at least 20%, CNBC reported, but Novo Nordisk said Monday that although the drug did improve unspecified "biomarkers" related to Alzheimer's, it did not slow the progression of the disease itself.

Analysts had been uncertain of how likely the trial was to achieve its goals, and about whether demand for Ozempic and Wegovy is still growing. Morgan Stanley analysts downgraded the drugmaker's stock in September.

Novo Nordisk stock has had a bumpy year, as slowing sales growth of its blockbuster weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy has led the drugmaker to replace its CEO and lower its outlook. The Biden and Trump administrations have also worked to make the weight loss drugs more affordable for Americans.

"Based on the significant unmet need in Alzheimer’s disease as well as a number of indicative data points, we felt we had a responsibility to explore semaglutide’s potential, despite a low likelihood of success," Novo Nordisk Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange said.

Alzheimer's diagnoses, and the costs associated with the disease, have increased as Baby Boomers have aged. The costs are projected to continue rising in the coming years, passing $1 trillion by 2050. Rival drugmakers such as Eli Lilly (LLY) and Biogen (BIIB) each currently make other drugs that can slow the progression of Alzheimer's.

Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares were down 6% in recent trading. The stock, which is trading at its lowest level in more than four years, has lost nearly half of its value since the start of the year as sales growth for its weight-loss drugs has slowed.

• Tesla shares jumped Monday after Elon Musk posted on social media over the weekend that the company plans to grow its AI chips business. 
• The gains helped bring Tesla's stock back into positive territory for the year after a hit in recent weeks as worries about an AI bubble weighed on tech stocks.

Elon Musk wants investors to know Tesla is an AI chip company, too.

"Most people don’t know that Tesla has had an advanced AI chip and board engineering team for many years," the CEO posted on his social media site X Sunday, continuing that Tesla (TSLA) "has already designed and deployed several million AI chips" in its vehicles and data centers.

Tesla's stock surged over 6% in recent trading following the post, making it one of the biggest gainers in the S&P 500. Rising expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut next month—which could also benefit the electric vehicle maker by stimulating demand for big-ticket purchases—likely also helped boost sentiment for the stock Monday, along with broader markets.

At a time when Tesla's electric vehicle business faces a number of challenges including growing competition, its CEO has been pushing investors to see it as more than just a car company, emphasizing its developments in self-driving technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Elon Musk's post over the weekend underscores how AI chips are part of its plans.

"These chips are what enable Tesla to be the leader in real-world AI,” Musk said in his post over the weekend. The company is close to upgrading the current version of its chip, called AI4, to AI5, he said, and is starting work on a newer model AI6.

Musk said Tesla now plans to get a new AI chip design into production every 12 months, and that it expects “to build chips at higher volumes ultimately than all other AI chips combined,” furthering Tesla's self-driving and robotics goals.

Musk also used his post to solicit applications from engineers who want to work on Tesla’s AI chip program.

With Monday's gains, shares of Tesla are back in positive territory for the year. Still, they've lost more than 10% from their highs at the start of the month, having taken a big hit during the broader pullback in tech stocks in recent weeks amid worries about an AI bubble.

News of the day for Nov. 24, 2025

Stock futures are pointing to a higher open for major indexes to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week; market participants are growing increasingly confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again next month; bitcoin regained some ground over the weekend after weeks of declines; U.S. officials are in Europe for tariff negotiations; and Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk's U.S.-listed shares are sinking following the results of its latest drug trial. Here's what you need to know today.

Stock futures are moving higher this morning after experiencing significant volatility last week amid growing concerns about the possibility of an AI bubble. Stocks rose on Friday after a Federal Reserve official suggested support for an interest rate cut in December, but the three major indexes each posted big losses for the week. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.4% recently, while those linked to the benchmark S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.7% and 1%, respectively. The stock market will be closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving and will have an abbreviated trading session on Friday, but there are plenty of earnings reports and economic data in the next few days. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs for all sorts of loans, was at 4.04% recently, down slightly from Friday's close and trading at its lowest level in nearly a month. Gold futures and crude oil futures were down slightly.

Market participants now expect the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate next month, after New York Fed President John Williams on Friday said that there may be "room for a further adjustment". Traders are now pricing in nearly a 75% cut at the Fed's Dec. 9-10 policy meeting, up from around 40% a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data. The Fed trimmed its key fed funds rate at each of the past two meetings—in September and October—amid rising concerns about the health of the labor market. Fed officials recently have been divided in their views about whether another cut is warranted, amid ongoing concerns about inflationary pressure.

Stocks tied to cryptocurrencies are gaining ground in premarket trading Monday, as bitcoin trades above the lows it hit at the end of last week. Bitcoin was at $86,000 recently, down from an overnight high of around $88,000 but up from Friday's level near $81,000, which was its lowest level since April. After trading as high as $125,000 in early October, the digital asset has tumbled in recent weeks as investor risk appetite waned amid concerns about the AI trade and uncertainty about the Fed's next move. Shares of Strategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, were up nearly 2% recently. Shares of bitcoin miner Mara Holdings (MARA) and crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) were up nearly 3%.

American officials including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are in Europe Monday for a new round of trade negotiations. Ahead of the meeting, European Union officials said that they did not expect to reach a deal to lower tariffs on steel and other goods in the first day of talks, per Bloomberg. As of their last agreement earlier this year, the U.S. currently has a 15% tariff on most goods coming into the country from the E.U., along with a 50% tax on a range of products made with steel and aluminum.

Shares of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NVO) are down sharply this morning after the Ozempic maker's latest drug trial's results disappointed. The company had been looking to determine whether semaglutide, the active ingredient in weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, could also slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. The trial's goal was to slow the decline by at least 20%, CNBC reported, but Novo Nordisk said Monday that although the drug did improve unspecified "biomarkers" related to Alzheimer's, it did not slow the progression of the disease itself. Analysts had been uncertain of how likely the trial was to achieve its goals, and about whether demand for Ozempic and Wegovy are still growing. Novo Nordisk's U.S.-traded shares were down more than 10% ahead of the opening bell.

Traders get a break this week after a busy stretch in markets.

U.S. stock and bond markets are closed Thursday, Nov. 27, for Thanksgiving Day. Trading picks up again Friday—or Black Friday, if you prefer—but the days are shortened: The stock market closes at 1 p.m., while the bond market is set to close at 2 p.m.

The next trading breaks come around the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

The stock market will close at 1 p.m., and the bond market at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24, for Christmas Eve, and remain closed through the holiday on Dec. 25.

Both markets are closed on Jan. 1, 2026, for New Year's Day. Stock traders have a full day on New Year's Eve, but bond trading ends at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 31.

• Foreign investors poured more than $300 billion into U.S. assets in August and September, easing fears of a global Treasury selloff.
• The steady demand helps keep borrowing costs lower for American households, despite trade tensions and discussions about de-dollarization.

If there were any lingering thoughts that foreign investors are dumping U.S. Treasury securities—and threatening to raise interest rates for American households—the latest data from the federal government put it to rest. 

New data from the Treasury Department showed continued appetite among foreign investors for U.S. securities, including the bonds that the Treasury issues to finance deficits. Net capital inflows were over $300 billion in August and September.

It’s the latest evidence that the fears of massive outflows from U.S. government bonds after President Donald Trump’s more-aggressive-than-expected tariff announcements in April haven’t panned out. 

“That ‘Sell America’ thing was a one-week trade back in April. Since then, it's absolutely been ‘Buy America Back,’” wrote Benjamin Schroeder, senior rates strategist at the Dutch bank ING.

Steady foreign demand for U.S. debt helps keep interest rates in check for American households, despite global economic tensions and trade uncertainty.

A wholesale dumping of U.S. Treasury bonds would risk a sharp rise in interest rates for American households, since fewer buyers of U.S. debt would mean the federal government needs to pay more interest to attract investors. 

That would translate into higher rates on consumer products such as auto loans or mortgages, plus stick Congress with a bigger interest tab to fund.

However, there is “no evidence of the sell America fears carrying through to significant selling of U.S. Treasury debt,” John Canavan, lead analyst at Oxford Economics, said in an email.

Foreign investor demand “has shown no signs of declining,” he added. Japan remains the biggest holder of Treasury debt, with holdings continuing to rise through September. He also flagged a rapid rise in Treasury holdings in Eurozone countries and stabilization in Chinese holdings of Treasurys, after the past decade’s decline.

The Treasury Department released the data for August and September this week, after a delay due to the now-resolved government shutdown.

That doesn’t mean that investors are solely focused on U.S. markets. Investors are also putting more cash in Europe, Asia and elsewhere in the globe, a trend that’s helped cause the U.S. dollar index to weaken more than 7% this year against a basket of foreign currencies.

Bonds issued by emerging market countries are seeing large gains, as are their stock markets. A roughly 27% jump in the MSCI Emerging Markets index is its strongest gain since 2009, analysts at Yardeni Research noted this week. 

“We see an opportunity to invest broadly across EMs; but be mindful of the risks and regional disparities before leaping into positions,” they wrote, noting Korea, Colombia, Greece, and South Africa and Peru as major beneficiaries. At the same time, a few Southeast Asian countries have taken a hit.

Global central banks are also diversifying the reserves they hold to facilitate international trade and their countries’ financial positions. The U.S. dollar remains the preeminent global currency, but central banks are increasingly holding more gold. It’s a trend that analysts say has supported this year’s rally in gold prices, though retail buyers have also flocked to the metal.

“Central banks are planning for gradual diversification rather than widespread de-dollarisation,” the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum wrote this year after conducting a survey of central bankers, flagging gold as a popular alternative.

Indeed, diversifying away from the U.S. dollar doesn’t necessarily imply broad-based selling of U.S. bonds, Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, wrote in a note to clients Thursday. Foreign governments and central banks seem to be buying fewer Treasury securities, the Treasury data showed, but demand is continuing among foreign investors in the private sector.

Inflows from bond funds into the United States have actually outpaced those in Canada and Europe in recent months, Goldberg wrote. He sees next year as “shaping up as a continuation of 2025,” with U.S. Treasurys outperforming bonds in other major economies and pushing down borrowing costs for U.S. households.

The de-dollarization narrative “continues to hum along under the hood,” he wrote, and it could re-emerge when Trump announces Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s replacement next year.

“The important point to keep in mind is that as long as diversification occurs amid a rising global savings pool, investors will be able to diversify their holdings without dumping Treasuries,” Goldberg wrote.

This trading week is—Thankfully—shorter than usual. But there's still work to do.

Stock and bond markets are closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. But the week will still bring several economic releases, along with earnings reports from companies including John Deere, Alibaba, Applied Digital and Dell Technologies.

The September report on U.S. retail sales, delayed by the government shutdown, will be released just ahead of Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Weekly jobless claims, pending home sales, durable-goods orders and the latest consumer confidence survey are also on time. Some data originally scheduled for this week will be delayed as government statistical agencies update their timetables to catch up on reports that were delayed during government shutdown. 

In addition to the day off Thursday, stock markets will close at 1 p.m. ET on Friday, while bond markets close at 2 p.m. ET.

Read to the bottom for our calendar of key events—and one more thing.

Investors on Monday will get an update from laboratory equipment maker Agilent, video call firm Zoom, and Symbotic, a partner of Walmart that makes AI-powered warehouse automation products.

Tuesday is also busy: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, chipmaker Applied Digital, design software maker Autodesk, data storage provider NetApp, and cybersecurity firm Zscaler are scheduled to report earnings. Workday is expected to report quarterly earnings for the first time since activist investment group Elliott Investment Management reported taking a stake in the company. 

Dell Technologies and HP are slated to report on Tuesday after the computer and equipment makers were downgraded by analysts who see the companies struggling with higher costs for components. John Deere’s report on Wednesday is likely to provide some insight into the overall health of the construction and agriculture industries.

Delayed retail-sales results for September, due Tuesday, will show whether shoppers kept up their momentum going into the shutdown as consumers focus their attention on Black Friday and the holiday season. Market watchers will also get a look at inflation with the release of the wholesale-focused Producer Price Index for September. 

Reports from private-sector groups will provide updates on pending home sales and consumer confidence in November. Weekly jobless claims are also expected to be issued Wednesday and are likely of interest after last week’s employment report showed hiring surged. 

Several reports on the calendar this week will be rescheduled, including the first reading of third-quarter gross domestic product, the October PCE Price Index, and the advanced reports on October trade balance, retail inventories, and wholesale inventories. The delayed data could make matters more difficult for Federal Reserve officials, who are scheduled to issue their next interest rate decision on Dec. 10.

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Monday, Nov. 24

• Key Earnings: Agilent (A), Symbotic (SYM), Keysight Technology (KEYS), Zoom Communications (ZM)

Tuesday, Nov. 25

• U.S. retail sales (September)
• More Data to Watch: Producer Price Index (September), Business inventories (August), S&P Case-Shiller home price index (September), Consumer confidence (November), Pending home sales (October)
• Key Earnings: Alibaba (BABA), Analog Devices (ADI), Dell Technologies (DELL), Autodesk (ADSK), Workday (WDAY), Zscaler (ZS), NetApp (NTAP), HP (HPQ), NIO (NIO)

Wednesday, Nov. 26

• Initial jobless claims (Week ending Nov. 22)
• Other Data to Watch: Federal Reserve Beige Book, Durable-goods orders (September), Chicago Business Barometer PMI (November) 
• Key Earnings: Deere & Co. (DE), Li Auto (LI)

Thursday, Nov. 27

• Thanksgiving holiday

Friday, Nov. 28

• Stock markets close at 1 p.m. ET; Bond markets close at 2 p.m. ET
• Black Friday holiday shopping day

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