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The past week was another consequential one for traders as several significant news reports were made public. The main event of the week was the Fed’s December rate decision that was made on Wednesday afternoon.
The Fed decided to cut the nation’s main interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent. Technically, the Fed Funds rate is in a range between 3.75 percent and 4 percent. There were two voting members who dissented claiming that inflation was still too high and would be an issue for the foreseeable future. However, the base case for 2026 is that additional cuts will likely be made assuming that economic and labor conditions don’t change drastically to the upside.
On Tuesday, the JOLTS report was released and revealed that there were 7.67 million openings in the United States. This was roughly 500,000 jobs more than the projected figure of 7.14 million prior to the release. However, it was slightly higher than the previous month’s figure of 7.66 million.

Thursday saw the release of the weekly unemployment claims figures. Over the past seven days, there were 236,000 requests for benefits, which was significantly higher than last week’s 192,000 claims. The actual figure was also much higher than what analysts expected prior to the release.

The nonfarm payroll report for November is scheduled to be released this coming Tuesday, and that should provide some more clarity about the actual health of the economy. It’s believed that the economy added just 50,000 jobs that month, which would be less than half of the 119,000 created in September. September is the last month in which data was collected and released because of the government shutdown and the decision to cancel the release of the October report.

Over the past five trading days, the S&P 500 lost almost 47 points to close the week at 6,827. This was a loss of 0.68 percent for the week, but the index is still up almost 13 percent from this time last year, and it has appreciated significantly since April when the index dropped below 4,900. For the week, the market made a high of 6,901 on Thursday and a low of 6,803 on Friday morning.

The Dow was up this week by 615 points to close Friday at 48,458. It is currently near its all-time high and is expected to continue rallying through the end of 2025 as December tends to be a good month for stocks. This week, the Dow made a low of 47,537 on Wednesday and a high of 48,871 on Friday morning.

The Nasdaq was also down this week by more than 580 points to close at 25,196. This was a loss of 2.25 percent over the last five trading days for an index that is up more than 16.5 percent over the past 12 months. During the past five days, the index made a high of 25,818 on Wednesday and closed near its low of the week.

In international news, Australia announced on Monday evening that it was keeping the nation’s key interest rate at 3.6 percent. On Wednesday, Canada announced that its key rate was going to stay at 2.25 percent. Thursday, Switzerland followed suit by keeping its key interest rate at 0 percent. Finally, on Friday morning, Great Britain reported that its gross domestic product fell by 0.1 percent in November.

The upcoming week is likely to be another interesting one as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases its version of the nonfarm payroll report. Retail sales data as well as the Flash Manufacturing and Flash Service PMIs will also be made public on Tuesday. Inflation and unemployment claims data will be made public on Thursday while the University of Michigan will release consumer sentiment and inflation expectation information on Friday.

The first full trading week of December was eventful. On Monday, the ISM Manufacturing PMI was released and came in at 48.2, which was lower than expected and was also lower than last month’s figure of 48.7. This implies that the manufacturing sector in the United States is in a period of contraction, which continues a narrative that has lasted for several years now.

The ISM Services PMI came out on Wednesday and found that services demand was still strong. For the past month, the PMI was at 52.6, which was higher than the projected 52 and slightly higher than last month’s 52.4.

Also on Wednesday, the ADP version of the nonfarm payroll report came out and found that the economy lost 32,000 jobs in November. Analysts believed that the economy had added 5,000 jobs prior to the report. The November figure represented a sharp decline from October’s gain of 47,000 jobs.

On Thursday, unemployment claim data for the last seven days was made public. It was revealed that 191,000 people requested benefits over the period. This was the lowest number in three years, and economists are puzzled as to how jobless claims are down during a period of slower hiring.

On Friday, it was announced the Core PCE Price Index was up 0.2 percent, which was in line with expectations. Furthermore, the University of Michigan released their inflation expectation and consumer sentiment reports. Consumer sentiment came in at 53.3, which was a slight increase from last month’s 51 while respondents believe that inflation will be at 4.1 percent a year from now.

The S&P 500 was up 0.88 percent this week to close at 6,870 on Friday. This was an increase of about 60 points from the start of trading on Monday. For the week, the index made a low of 6,806 on Tuesday and a high of 6,894 on Thursday.

The Dow was up 1.07 percent this week to close at 47,954, which was an increase of just over 500 points since the start of trading on Monday. For the week, the index made a low of 47,292 on Tuesday and a high of 48,091 on Thursday.

Finally, the Nasdaq was up 1.76 percent over the last five trading days to close the week at 25,692. This was an increase of just over 440 points since the start of trading Monday. For the week, the index made a low of 25,220 early Monday morning and a high of 25,809 on Friday morning.

In international news, Australia announced Tuesday evening that its gross domestic product grew by 0.4 percent over the last quarter. Switzerland announced early Wednesday morning that inflation fell by 0.2 percent over the last month compared to an expected drop of 0.1 percent. On Friday, Canada announced that its economy added 53,600 jobs and that its unemployment rate dropped to 6.5 percent.

The upcoming week will be an interesting one as several important news releases are on the calendar. On Tuesday, the JOLTS figures from September, October and November are scheduled to be made public. On Wednesday, the Fed will make its December rate decision, and it’s expected that the main rate will fall to 3.75 percent from 4 percent. Unemployment claims data will be released Thursday to round out the weekly schedule.

The final trading week of November was a front-loaded one. A number of scheduled news releases came out on Tuesday as the Price Producer Index (PPI) and retail sales figures from September were made known. Core PPI was up 0.1 percent, which was lower than the expected increase of 0.2 percent and higher than August’s drop of 0.1 percent. Overall PPI was up 0.3 percent, which was in line with expectations. It also represented an increase from August when prices dropped 0.1 percent that month.

Core retail sales were up 0.3 percent and was also in line with expectations. It marked a sharp decrease from August when sales were up 0.6 percent, which was a downward revision from the original report that month. Overall retail sales were up 0.2 percent compared to an expected 0.4 percent and were also down from an increase of 0.6 percent in August.

Although retail sales were up in September, consumer confidence was down in October. In that month, the CB Consumer Confidence figure came in at 88.7 compared to an expected 93.4. However, the report was revised upward in October to 95.5 several weeks after the initial figure was released.

On Wednesday, unemployment claim figures for the last seven days were made public. Over that time period, there were 216,000 requests for benefits compared to an expected 226,000. Last week, there were 222,000 such requests for unemployment benefits.

A second gross domestic product (GDP) estimate was originally scheduled to be released on Wednesday. However, it was cancelled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) because of the government shutdown. The BEA said that the release would occur at some point in the future.

The S&P 500 made a holiday rally this week picking up 4.4 percent to finish Friday’s trading at 6,849. The index overcame a sluggish first half of the month to give some hope that the close of the year will be a strong one. For the week, the market opened at its low, gained ground all week and then closed at its high.

The Dow also had a strong week closing up 4 percent to finish at 47,716. This was a gain of 1,848 points for an index that was able to get over the hump and finish November in the green. As with the S&P 500, the Dow also started the week at its lowest point and closed at its highest point.

The Nasdaq turned in the best performance this week finishing up just over 5 percent to close at 23,365, which was an increase of 1,143 points over the past five trading days. Despite The index cut its loses to 0.78 percent for the month

In international news, Australia announced Tuesday night that its inflation rate was 3.6 percent over the past month. Also on Tuesday, New Zealand announced that it was reducing the nation’s key interest rate from 2.5 percent to 2.25 percent. Finally, on Thursday night, Japan announced its inflation rate was 2.8 percent on an annualized basis.

The September PCE Price Index results are scheduled to be released on Friday in addition to the Bureau of Labor Statistics version of the nonfarm payroll report for November. The ADP version of that report is scheduled to be released on Wednesday. ISM PMI data will also be released next week in addition to the unemployment claims figures on Thursday morning.