U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as investors stepped to the sidelines and awaited economic data and remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to gauge the central bank's verdict on monetary policy when it meets later this month.
Market Snapshot
At 7:50 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were down 234 points, or 0.49%, S&P 500 E-minis were down 52.50 points, or 0.77% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were down 262.50 points, or 1.03%.
Pre-Market Movers
Big Tech Stocks - US big tech stocks dropped in premarket trading, signaling risk aversion ahead of a slew of economic data this week even as bets for a December Federal Reserve interest-rate cut remain firm. AMD, Nvidia, TSMC, and Palantir fell 2%; Meta, Tesla, Oracle, and Netflix fell 1%.
Crypto Stocks- Crypto stocks were sliding following another selloff in Bitcoin, which has dropped 5% over the past 24 hours to fall back below $90,000 to around $86,500. Bitfarms fell 10%; TeraWulf and Hut 8 fell 9%; CleanSpark, Cipher Mining, and SharpLink Gaming fell 8%; BitMine fell 7%; IREN, Riot Platforms, and MARA Holdings fell 6%; Bullish, Strategy, and Coinbase fell 5%; Robinhood fell 4%; Circle fell 3%.
Gold and Silver Stocks - Gold and silver stocks rose in premarket trading as Silver jumped more than 2% to a record high. Barrick Mining rose 5%; Coeur Mining and Hecla Mining rose 3%; Eldorado rose 2%. First Majestic Silver and Pan American Silver rose 2%.
Memory-Chip Stocks - Memory-chip stocks dropped in premarket trading. SanDisk fell 4%; Western Digital, $Micron Technology(MU), and Seagate fell 2%.
Canadian Solar - Canadian Solar, a major solar panel manufacturer, is transferring the assets of its Chinese unit to Canadian ownership, to safeguard sales into the US as Washington steps up scrutiny of imports from the Asian nation. Canadian Solar shares jumped 12.9% in premarket trading.
Coupang - Coupang slumped 5.8% in premarket trading after a massive data leak at the South Korean retailer, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. South Korean police said they were investigating the hack, which exposed about 34 million accounts.
New Fortress Energy - New Fortress Energy jumped 23.8% ahead of the opening bell. Regulators in Puerto Rico said late Friday they had tentatively approved a contract with the embattled liquefied natural gas supplier, which has faced questions about its ballooning debt. The deal may give the stock, down 92% this year, a much-needed boost.
NIO, XPeng, Li Auto - U.S.-listed shares of NIO fell 3.5%, XPeng declined 2.6%, and Li Auto fell 1.4% after the Chinese electric-vehicle makers issued deliveries for November. NIO delivered 36,275 vehicles last month, up 76.3% from a year earlier; XPeng’s deliveries in November gained 19%; and Li Auto said it delivered 33,181 vehicles in November.
Market News
Trump Says He Has Made His Choice to Lead the Federal Reserve
US President Donald Trump said Sunday he has decided on his pick for the next Federal Reserve chair after making clear he expects his nominee to deliver interest-rate cuts.
“I know who I am going to pick, yeah,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way back to Washington, without naming his choice. “We’ll be announcing it.”
Trump has frequently excoriated current Fed chief Jerome Powell for failing to lower rates swiftly and signaled he wants a chair who will more forcefully pursue cuts. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News last week that White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Trump’s chief economic adviser, is seen as the likely choice to succeed Powell.
Bitcoin Plunges to Below $86,000 in Risk-Off Start to December
Cryptocurrencies fell sharply on Monday, bringing fresh momentum to a wide-ranging selloff that appeared to have settled.
Bitcoin slid as much as 6% to below $86,000 in early Asia trading, while Ether dropped more than 7% to about $2,800, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Most tokens followed a similar pattern, with Solana falling 7.8%.
The crypto market is on shaky ground after a weeks-long selloff that began when some $19 billion in levered bets were wiped out in early October, just days after Bitcoin set an all-time high of $126,251. The original cryptocurrency shed 16.7% of its value in November, but a let-up in the selling pressure saw it regain ground last week, rising to above $90,000.
OPEC+ Sticks With Plans to Pause Output Hikes in Early 2026
OPEC+ will stick with plans to pause production increases during the first quarter, amid growing signs of a surplus in global oil markets.
Key members led by Saudi Arabia confirmed the three-month supply pause, first announced at the start of this month, following a set of video conferences on Sunday. They reiterated in a statement that the decision reflected expectations for weaker seasonal market conditions.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies also approved a mechanism for its review of members’ individual production capacities, a sensitive process that will help set quotas in 2027. They picked Dallas-based consultant DeGolyer and MacNaughton Corp. for most assessments.
Silver Jumps to Record High on Supply Tightness, Rate-Cut Hopes
Silver jumped more than 2% to a record high, with traders placing speculative bets on the white metal given ongoing supply tightness and rising expectations for an interest-rate cut in the US. Gold was steady.
Silver rose as high as $57.86 an ounce, before paring some of its gains. The precious metal has risen for six consecutive days and doubled in value this year, outpacing a roughly 60% rise in gold.
A record amount of the metal flowed into London in October to ease a historic squeeze in the world’s biggest silver trading hub. This in turn has put other centers under pressure: Inventories in warehouses linked to the Shanghai Futures Exchange recently hit their lowest in nearly a decade, bourse data shows, and the cost of borrowing the metal over one month remains elevated.