The final month of the year begins on Monday, and investors will be looking for a smoother month to ease into the year after shaky November trading saw the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) snap a seven-month winning streak while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) retreated to a 1% record high.
On Friday, the markets ended the week with a fifth consecutive session of gains to close the month up and down in a trading session shortened by the holidays. And despite snapping its monthly winning streak, the Nasdaq is also within 3% of the record high. The Dow is down less than 2% from its record close.
And while the past five days have been good for the market, the past month has been anything but steady, as worries about a potential AI bubble weighed on some of the market’s heavyweights. Over the past month, Meta (META) stock has lost 13%, while Nvidia (NVDA) shares are down about 8%. Oracle (ORCL) lost nearly 30% during this period.
The exception was Google (GOOG), whose stock rose about 20% after a strong earnings report, positive reaction to its Gemini 3 model, and, this past week, reports of a multibillion-dollar AI chip with Meta.
In the coming week, the attention of investors will remain on the probabilities of a rate cut at the December meeting of the Federal Reserve, with traders currently predicting an 86.9% chance of a quarter-point cut. The Fed entered its mandatory blackout period on Saturday, marking the start of a quiet week and a half before the Federal Open Market Committee meets on December 9-10.
Reports this past week also suggested that the Trump administration is close to landing on a candidate to replace Jerome Powell as Fed chairman, with Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, appearing to be the frontrunner for the nomination.
The economic calendar will continue a slow normalization after the 43-day US government shutdown threw data collection into chaos, with private reports on US manufacturing activity, service sector activity, and ADP’s monthly private payrolls report appearing.
On the corporate earnings side, retailers Dollar Tree ( DLTR ), Dollar General ( DG ), and Five Below ( FIVE ) are all reporting, while Salesforce ( CRM ) and CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) will appear from the tech industry.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell looks at U.S. President Donald Trump holding a document during a tour of the Federal Reserve Board building, which is currently undergoing renovation, in Washington, DC, U.S., July 24, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo ·Reuters / Reuters
Investors have been getting a lot of bearish signals over the past month.
Famous short sellers Michael Burry and Jim Chanos made calls against AI trading. The leadership of Nvidia published a letter that was received badly and tries to affirm that the chip giant, in fact, does not have the same structural problems as Enron. Elsewhere, the biggest US retailers saw mixed results in third-quarter earnings as consumers were squeezed by inflated prices.
Strategists on the Street, however, see a rosier picture for the Stock Market going forward.
Top equity strategists at JPMorgan see the S&P 500, currently at 6,849, reaching 7,500 by the end of 2026 – a nearly 10% rally. If the Federal Reserve continues to reduce interest rates, the bank sees a case for the index to cross 8,000.
“The US is poised to remain the world’s growth engine, driven by a resilient economy and an AI-driven supercycle fueling record capex and rapid earnings expansion,” JPMorgan strategists wrote in a client note.
Elsewhere on the Street, HSBC strategists set their 2026 price target at 7,500 while Deutsche Bank predicted the index would reach 8,000. All three firms have linked their bullish calls to AI trading.
“Back then [in the 1990s equity boom]as of today, technology is leading, concentration of return is high, and new technology is promising to be transformational. We expect equities to remain supported by the AI-led capex boom,” HSBC strategists wrote.
At Deutsche Bank, strategists expect volatility between now and what they see as a clearly more efficient – and, in turn, higher-profit – corporate environment as a result of AI innovation.
“Given the pace of technological advancement, it is almost impossible to believe that this will not translate into significant productivity gains in the coming years,” the Deutsche Bank team wrote.
“In the meantime, markets could swing sharply between boom-and-bust narratives, regardless of their eventual destination. So while our global economists and strategists remain largely positive for 2026, they don’t expect any lay-up in volatility or a shift in sentiment.”
The bullish outlook for 2026, then, essentially calls for a replay of 2025, with November serving as the prime example of what it takes to realize above-average returns.
“Volatility is like a toll that investors pay on the road to attractive long-term returns,” LPL Financial chief equity strategist Jeff Buchbinder wrote in an email. “This year offers us this powerful lesson once again.”
Traders Patrick Casey, left, and Timothy Nick work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) ·ASSOCIATED PRESS
Economic data: S&P Global US manufacturing PMI, November final reading (51.9 previously); ISM manufacturing, November (49 expected, 48.7 prior)
Earnings: Credo Technology Group (CRDO), MongoDB (MDB), New Fortress Energy (NFE)
Economic data: No notable economic data.
Earnings: CrowdStrike (CRWD), The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Marvell Technology (MRVL), Okta (OKTA), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)
Economic data: MBA mortgage applications, week ended November 28 (0.2% earlier); ADP employment change, November (+20,000 expected, +42,000 previously); Import price index, month-on-month, September (+0.1% expected, +0.3% previously); Export price index, month-on-month, September (0% expected, +0.3% previously); Industrial production, month-on-month, September (+0.1% expected, +0.1% earlier); S&P Global US services PMI, November, final reading (55 previously); S&P Global US composite PMI, November, final reading (55 previously); ISM services index, November (52 expected, 52.4 earlier)
Earnings: Salesforce (CRM), Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Snowflake (SNOW), Dollar Tree (DLTR), Five Below (FIVE), Macy’s (M), Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC), C3.ai (AI)
Economic data: Challenger employment declines, year over year, November (+175.3% prior); Initial jobless claims, week ended Nov. 29 (216,000 earlier); Continuous claims, week ended November 22 (1.96 million previously)
Earnings: Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Kroger (KR), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), Dollar General (DG), Samsara (IOT), The Cooper Companies (COO), DocuSign (DOCU), Brown-Forman Corporation (BF-A, BF-B), Rubrik (RBRK)
Economic data: Personal income, September (+0.3% expected); Personal spending, September (+0.3% expected); Real personal spending, September (0.1% expected); PCE price index, month-on-month, September (+0.3% expected); PCE price index, year over year, September (+2.8% expected); Core PCE price index, month on month, September (+0.2% expected); Core PCE price index, year over year, September (+2.8% expected); University of Michigan sentiment, December preliminary reading (52 expected, 51 earlier)
Earnings: Victoria’s Secret (VSCO)
Jake Conley is a breaking news reporter covering US equities for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @byjakeconley or email him at jake.conley@yahooinc.com.
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