Markets
The small polar bear lady Antonia eats an ice cake with fruit and vegetable filling at the zoo in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, 20 December 2017.
(Antonia Hofmann/Getty Images)

Stocks waver ahead of tomorrow’s interest rate decision

The S&P 500 struggled for direction, but small-caps were trading near all-time highs.

Tasha Matsumoto

The S&P 500 ended Tuesday’s session slightly lower, while the Nasdaq 100 posted a modest gain. The Russell 2000 notched a new intraday all-time high, as small-caps are poised to benefit from tomorrow’s anticipated rate cut. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s commentary will offer crucial insight into the central bank’s approach to easing in 2026.

Traders also digested delayed JOLTS data from September and October, which showed higher-than-expected job openings in October.

Stocks that moved higher:

Stocks that moved lower:

  • JPMorgan Chase fell as its retail banking head, Marianne Lake, remarked during the Goldman Sachs financial services conference that the consumer environment is a “bit more fragile.” Wells Fargo dipped as well.

  • Nvidia shed gains after the Financial Times reported that China may limit its access to H200 chips despite President Trump’s announcement yesterday.

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Luke Kawa
51m
GameStop falls after Q3 revenues dip about 5% year on year

The video games and collectibles retailer just reported Q3 results.

GameStop signage
>20%
Matt Phillips

The buy-the-dip bid from retail traders has been a massive market theme throughout 2025, and analysts at Jefferies have tried to quantify just how big of a footprint individual traders now have in US markets.

In a note published Tuesday, they wrote (emphasis added):

“Retail investors have become an increasingly relevant component of the US trading ecosystem, representing >20% of volume — and even higher among names <$5. Growth in accounts, assets, and activity is reflected in the growth of Robinhood, Interactive Brokers, Charles Schwab, etc. A burgeoning product suite, expanded trading hours, and increased investor education support continued growth. Retail interest is here to stay; institutional investors should adjust their strategies accordingly.”

(Robinhood Markets Inc. is the parent company of Sherwood Media, an independently operated media company subject to certain legal and regulatory restrictions.)

markets
Luke Kawa

JPMorgan said Marvell’s management told them their Microsoft and Amazon custom chip business is on track, contradicting other reports

The latest release from the Marvell Chipematic Universe is out:

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur hosted a meeting with Marvell Technology President and COO Chris Koopmans and Senior VP of Investor Relations Ashish Saran on Monday amid reports that the chip company was poised to lose business from its two biggest hyperscaler custom chip clients: Amazon and Microsoft.

Benchmark downgraded the company on Monday, citing a loss of Trainium3 and 4 business, while The Information said on Friday the latter was planning on shifting its business to Broadcom. Shares tumbled 7% on Monday, erasing all of its post-earnings bounce, and are down again on Tuesday.

The message communicated to Sur from Marvell is, in short, one of Vince Vaughn’s quotable lines in “Wedding Crashers”: “Erroneous! Erroneous on both counts!”

“At our meeting yesterday, the Marvell team reiterated securing purchase orders for all of CY26 for the next-gen Trainium 3 XPU ASIC program at AWS and that the Microsoft 3 nanometer Maia AI XPU ASIC program remains on track to ramp back-half of calendar year 2026 and into calendar year 2027,” Sur wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday. “Moreover, the team reiterated that they are already working on next-gen 2 nanometer XPU programs for both customers.”

The analyst maintained a $92 price target and “overweight” rating on the shares.

Sur added that Marvell’s management “remains perplexed/frustrated at all of the ‘noise’ in the market.”

This whole thing is starting to have the feel of a three- to four-episode subplot arc from HBO’s “Billions.”

David Crowther
CORR ISSUES
6h
Apple’s stock is behaving differently from the rest of BATMMAAN because its AI strategy is nowhere

Apple is so bad at AI that its stock is increasingly detached from the rest of Big Tech. Some days that’s a blessing; on others, it’s a curse.

Parakeet among pigeons on cobblestone sidewalk
markets
Luke Kawa

Accenture rises after announcing partnership with Anthropic, adding to its recent series of AI collaborations

Accenture is rising after the consulting giant announced a multiyear partnership with Anthropic to become “a premier AI partner for coding with Claude Code.” This includes a joint offering for AI-enabled software development with a focus on regulated industries including finance, healthcare, life sciences, and the public sector.

It comes on the heels of Accenture’s partnership with OpenAI earlier this month to utilize ChatGPT Enterprise in its consulting work. It’s also recently invested in AI-powered customer research platform WEVO and expanded its collaboration with cloud-based data company Snowflake to better utilize data using AI tools.

As Sherwood News’ Hyunsoo Rim recently flagged, the consulting business has hit an AI-shaped wall, with employment in the industry peaking shortly after the launch of ChatGPT.

Charitably, Accenture’s management is eagerly embracing how the consulting business may be radically altered in a world where corporate AI adoption is ubiquitous, and reacting accordingly. Uncharitably, it’s the best “training your replacements” company out there.

The emphasis on regulated industries as potential customers for this partnership is noteworthy. Jordi Visser of 22V Research recently discussed at length how GenAI tools that enable “vibe coding” reduce barriers to entry for software development, prompting a need to focus on industries where quality and safety are paramount.

“Where software is mostly a polished UI on CRUD, vibe coding is existential,” he wrote. “Where software is inseparable from life, safety, or regulated liability, AI deepens the moat.”

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