Companies less in the spotlight, like Snowflake and Super Micro Company, as well as other small- and mid-caps were contributed to markets’ rise last week.Companies less in the spotlight, like Snowflake and Super Micro Company, as well as other small- and mid-caps were contributed to markets’ rise last week.
This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.
What you need to know today
Winning week for markets Major U.S. indexes rose on Friday to end the week in the green, despite mega-cap stocks NvidiaAlphabetStoxx 600only sector to fall. Euro zone business activity was in contraction territory in November after remaining static in October.
Trump nominates Treasury secretary U.S. President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate Scott Bessent, founder of the hedge fund Key Square Group, as his Treasury secretary. Like Trump, Bessent is in favor of gradual tariffs and deregulation to support domestic business and address trade imbalances. Bessent was chosen over former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and private equity executive Marc Rowan.
Amazon doubles investment in Anthropic Amazon$4 billion in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup founded by ex-OpenAI employees. That brings Amazon’s total funding in Anthropic to $8 billion, though it will remain a minority investor, said Anthropic. The AI company’s flagship product is Claude, a chatbot like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Climate deal at COP29 At the COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, developed nations pledged to provide $300 billion annually to poorer countries to tackle climate change. This deal replaces an earlier commitment to provide $100 billion a year. Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson, billionaire founder of Virgin, said that “we can overcome climate change” if “everybody focused together.”
[PRO] Interest rates back in focus This week, the October personal consumption expenditures price index, out Wednesday, will dominate attention. “This might be one of the last big key pieces of data” for the U.S. Federal Reserve before its December meeting, said a fund manager. Minutes for the November meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, releasing a day prior, will give investors more insight into the pace of future rate cuts.
The bottom line
Big-name tech and chip stocks faltered last week.
Despite almost doubling its third-quarter revenue, compared with a year earlier, Nvidia
Google-parent Alphabetdivest its Chrome browser as a remedy to its antitrust case. And Amazon
That said, major indexes managed to reverse the previous week’s dip. The Dow Jones Industrial AverageS&P 500Nasdaq Composite
Even though other Magnificent Seven stocks did contribute to that, the indexes mostly have companies less in the spotlight, like Super Micro Company, to thank.
Likewise, small-cap stocks, which have languished behind their bigger cousins for years, seem to be staging a comeback as interest rates fall and Trump is poised to reenter the White House. The Russell 2000
“Investors are rotating out of the previous high flyers of large-cap communication services and technology and into other cyclical sectors of consumer discretionary, industrials, and financials, as well as mid- and small-cap stocks,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.
And bitcoin
That said, this inversion isn’t likely to last. “On the back of strong expected revenue growth in 2025, we maintain our positive view on the AI compute industry and NVIDIA in particular,” UBS analyst Sundeep Gantori wrote in a Thursday note.
Despite a temporary dip, the AI play will likely remain the main theme for the markets next year.
— CNBC’s Pia Singh, Alex Harring and Jesse Pound contributed to this report.
