Driven by dovish remarks from Federal Reserve officials, major U.S. indices, Bitcoin, and gold all rallied on Monday. Leading Fed Chair candidate Waller noted that recent data showed little change since the last Fed meeting, dismissing inflation as a major concern. Waller expressed greater worry about the labor market and advocated for a December rate cut. Trading activity is expected to remain subdued this week due to the shortened Thanksgiving holiday schedule.
**U.S. Markets** At close, the Dow rose 202.86 points (0.44%) to 46,448.27, while the Nasdaq surged 598.92 points (2.69%) to 22,872.01. The S&P 500 gained 102.13 points (1.55%) to 6,705.12. Google (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) soared over 6%, hitting a record high of $319.8.
**European Markets** Germany’s DAX30 climbed 137.52 points (0.60%) to 23,234.01, while the UK’s FTSE 100 dipped 2.76 points (0.03%) to 9,536.95. France’s CAC40 fell 22.98 points (0.29%) to 7,959.67.
**Commodities** Oil prices rose, with WTI crude for January delivery up $0.78 (1.34%) to $58.84/barrel. Brent crude gained $0.81 (1.29%) to $63.37/barrel.
**Cryptocurrencies** Bitcoin jumped over 2.4%, reclaiming $88K, while Ethereum rallied 5.7% to $2,963.6.
**Forex & Metals** The dollar index dipped 0.04% to 100.144. Spot gold surged 1.69% to $4,134.14/oz.
**Macro Highlights** - **Fed’s Daly**: Backed a December cut, citing labor market fragility as a greater risk than inflation. - **Fed’s Waller**: Advocated for a December cut but suggested a meeting-by-meeting approach thereafter. Markets now price in a 70% chance of a December cut. - **OpenAI**: Launched a free AI shopping research tool for holiday gift recommendations, leveraging GPT-5 mini. - **Deutsche Bank**: Set a bullish 2026 S&P 500 target of 8,000, citing AI-driven productivity gains. - **UBS**: Warned the Fed’s December meeting timing—before key jobs data—could prompt a rare delay.
**Corporate News** - **Apple (AAPL.US)**: Conducted rare layoffs, cutting dozens of sales roles targeting institutional clients. - **Amazon (AMZN.US)**: Committed up to $50B to build AI/HPC infrastructure for U.S. government agencies via AWS.