US stock futures sank on Monday morning, with Wall Street’s strong late-November rebound looking set to hit a speed bump in the first trading day of December.
Contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) fell 0.5%. S&P 500 futures (ES=F) dropped 0.6%, and Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ=F) slid 0.8%.
The declines follow holiday-shortened weekly gains for equities. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) surged 3.7% and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) jumped nearly 5%, snapping out of a choppy November. The Dow (^DJI) logged a solid 3.2% rise.
Monday kicks off the first trading session of December, historically one of the market’s friendliest months. However, much of that boost can be attributed to the “Santa Claus rally,” a period of heightened trading over the Christmas break. This year, analysts are pulling back from the concept of a booming holiday season after much of the year has been unpredictable — while consistently bucking seasonal trends.
“None have behaved the way they have seasonally,” Amy Wu Silverman, head of derivatives strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told Yahoo Finance.
The market’s Thanksgiving week rally was driven in large part by rising hopes of an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve in December, as over 85% of bets sit on a quarter-point cut next week. Meanwhile, after a year of butting heads with current Chair Jerome Powell, President Trump has announced that he has picked who he wants to lead the central bank next.
“I know who I am going to pick, yeah,” Trump told media Sunday night from Air Force One, without naming his choice.
Economic releases continue to flow back to normal after the chaos of the 43-day government shutdown. This week features a delayed release of September’s Personal Consumption Expenditures index, which contains the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. Investors will also see private reports on manufacturing activity and service sector activity, as well as ADP’s monthly private payrolls report.
The thinning docket of corporate earnings continues this week with bargain retailers Dollar Tree (DLTR), Dollar General (DG), and Five Below (FIVE) reporting. Salesforce (CRM) and CrowdStrike (CRWD) will feature from the tech industry.
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