Pre-market Trends 1. On Monday, December 1, U.S. stock futures for the three major indices all declined. As of writing, Dow futures fell 0.44%, S&P 500 futures dropped 0.60%, and Nasdaq futures slid 0.73%. 2. European markets also saw losses: Germany’s DAX fell 1.33%, the UK’s FTSE 100 dipped 0.09%, France’s CAC 40 declined 0.75%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 retreated 0.56%. 3. WTI crude rose 1.23% to $59.27/barrel, while Brent crude gained 1.20% to $63.13/barrel.

Market Highlights With the Fed now in a blackout period ahead of its December meeting, investor focus shifts to retail and cloud sector earnings. Traders currently price in an 87.6% chance of a 25-bps rate cut. Key earnings this week include discount retailers Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Five Below, alongside cloud leaders Salesforce, Snowflake, MongoDB, and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

Santa Rally in Doubt? Volatility May Dominate December Historically, December is among the strongest months for equities, but strategists warn this year may defy seasonal trends. RBC’s derivatives strategist Amy Wu Silverman noted heightened put buying, signaling investor caution over relying on year-end momentum.

Fed Leadership Shakeup? Trump Backs Rate-Cut Advocate Former President Trump announced his pick for the next Fed Chair on November 30, favoring a candidate aligned with his push for aggressive rate cuts. White House economist Kevin Hassett reportedly emerged as a top contender, though analysts question his ability to unify the FOMC.

Commodities Surge: Silver Hits Record High Amid Supply Crunch Silver prices soared to an all-time high of $57.86/oz, fueled by Fed rate-cut bets and tightening supply. Industrial demand (e.g., solar panels, EVs) and dwindling exchange inventories exacerbated the shortage. Meanwhile, LME copper surged 0.9% to $11,294.5/ton on tariff-driven supply concerns.

U.S. Black Friday Online Sales Hit $11.8B, AI Shopping Booms Adobe reported record Black Friday e-commerce spending of $11.8B (+9.1% YoY), with AI-powered shopping tools driving an 805% spike in related web traffic. Cyber Monday is projected to reach $14.2B in sales (+6.3% YoY).

Crypto Selloff: Bitcoin Tumbles Below $86K Bitcoin plunged over 6% to breach $86,000 amid renewed market jitters, last trading down 4.5% at $86,303.

Stock-Specific Updates - Tesla’s November registrations halved in France (-58%) and Denmark (-49%) despite Model Y launches, reflecting stiff EU competition and aging lineup. - Micron plans a $9.6B Hiroshima plant for advanced memory chips, aided by $5B in Japanese subsidies, to diversify from Taiwan and compete in HBM markets. - Disney’s *Zootopia 2* debuted with $272M in China, ranking as the market’s second-highest-grossing imported film. - AWS and Google Cloud will launch interoperable high-speed private links on December 3. - UnitedHealth exits Latin America with the $1B sale of Banmedica to Brazil’s Patria Investments.

EV Deliveries: - NIO delivered 36,275 vehicles (+76.3% YoY). - XPeng shipped 36,728 smart EVs (+19% YoY). - Li Auto reported 33,181 deliveries, with cumulative sales nearing 1.5M units.

Key Data Ahead: - 22:45 Beijing: U.S. November SPGI Manufacturing PMI - 23:00 Beijing: U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI

Earnings Watch: - Tuesday Pre-market: MongoDB, Cango - Tuesday Post-market: SiJi Education