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.

12/9/25 4:03PM

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:

CoreWeave traded higher after the neocloud company said this morning that its $2 billion convertible note offering announced on Monday has been upsized to $2.25 billion.
CVS Health rose after posting a cheery 2026 earnings forecast.
Ares Management soared on yesterday’s news of its S&P 500 inclusion.
Accenture gained after announcing partnership with Anthropic, adding to its recent series of AI collaborations.

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.

Matt Phillips9h

Oil settles Friday at highest level since start of war

US oil prices moved higher in afternoon trading Friday, sapping strength from the stock market as they posted their highest close since the start of the Iran war.

After another day where the Strait of Hormuz was essentially closed to global tanker traffic, US futures for West Texas Intermediate settled up 3.1% at $98.71 a barrel for an 8.6% weekly gain, per Dow Jones data.

American officials have discussed using the US Navy to escort tankers through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, but have said plans for such convoys are not ready yet. However, it is unclear if military convoys would bring an end to the war-related dislocations in the oil market.

“It could help,” Tom Liles, senior vice president of upstream research at energy consulting firm Rystad, told Sherwood News in a recent interview. “It could also go in a lot of different directions if a Navy ship is hit or if a tanker is hit.”

Oil Posts Weekly Gains As Middle East Conflict Drags On

Tasha Matsumoto

10h

Stocks post third straight week of losses as Brent crude surges above $100

Stocks wiped out early gains to close lower amid the ongoing war in Iran.

Matt Phillips13h

Memory stocks rebound off last weeks losses

Memory stocks Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings rose again Friday, putting these crucial providers of chips for AI inference work on track for big weekly gains after last week’s steep losses following the outbreak of war with Iran.

There’s no obvious trigger for the move higher for these shares this week, other than a bit of a recovery in the AI trade more broadly — AI beneficiaries like IT cable and connections maker Amphenol and custom chip and networking company Marvell Technology clawed back some gains this week — perhaps due Oracle’s earnings earlier, and some mean reversion to boot.

Micron is due to report earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday, with the company catching a couple price target hikes this week, including one from Wedbush on Friday.

Sandisk is something of a different story, as its enormous gains over the last 12 months — roughly 1,200% — have made it a momentum play beloved by the retail crowd.

It was up about 20% this week at around 11 a.m. ET. And its nearly 170% gain this year keeps the stock on top of the S&P 500, in terms of price performance.

Luke Kawa

13h

The S&P 500’s internals are awful... while it’s still less than 5% from its record closing high

The breadth of negative momentum within the index’s constituents is even worse than at the tariff-induced market bottom in April 2025.