Precious metals stole the spotlight, with gold and silver hitting fresh records overnight.
- Investors are buoyed by optimism around a potential late-December rally and a rebound in technology leadership.
- However, retail sentiment on Stocktwits remained bearish toward SPY and QQQ amid elevated message volumes.
U.S. stock futures were trading higher early Monday morning as investors gear up for the final full trading week of the year. The markets are looking to build on Friday's tech-led rally.
Precious metals are also making headlines, with gold and silver prices surging to fresh records overnight amid continued rate-cut expectations and safe-haven positioning.
As of 3:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.5%, while the S&P 500 futures gained 0.3%. The Russell 2000 futures and Dow futures were up over 0.1%.
On Stocktwits, however, retail sentiment toward the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index, and that toward the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, remained ‘bearish’ on Monday, amid high message volumes.
Investors should note that this will be a holiday-shortened trading week. The New York Stock Exchange will close early on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve and will be closed Thursday for Christmas Day.
Stocks To Watch
Clearwater Analytics (CWAN): Shares in the spotlight after agreeing to be acquired by Permira and Warburg Pincus for $24.55 per share in cash, which is a significant premium over its November undisturbed price.
Rocket Lab (RKLB): Stifel has raised its price target to $85 (from $75). Analysts pointed to the massive $805M contract from the Space Development Agency as a "meaningful win" for the company’s scale.
Apple (AAPL): Italy’s antitrust watchdog hit the tech giant with a €98 million fine for ‘abuse of dominant position’ regarding its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
Coupang (CPNG): South Korea’s National Tax Service is conducting a ‘special audit’ after a massive data leak affecting 33 million users.
Uber (UBER) & Lyft (LYFT): Announced a surprise partnership with China’s Baidu to trial robotaxis in the UK starting in 2026.
Alphabet ($GOOGL): Waymo has resumed SF robotaxi service after a massive weekend blackout caused fleet-wide stalls; Elon Musk noted Tesla (TSLA) was unaffected.
Nvidia (NVDA): Tencent is reportedly bypassing US chip bans by signing a $1.2 billion deal to rent Nvidia Blackwell GPUs via Japanese data centers.
Other Catalysts To Track
On the economic front, it will be a relatively quiet day, but the market is bracing for Tuesday's Final Q3 GDP reading and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence index.
Noteworthy names on the earnings calendar for the day include AlphaTON Capital Corp (ATON), Maxeon Solar Technologies (MAXN)
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