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First off, stocks kick off the week in the green, as investors cheer Trump's choice of Scott Bessent to lead the Treasury Department. The dollar fell, the US government bonds rallied after the nomination, as investors are expecting Bessent to take the sting out of President-elect Trump's more aggressive trade in economic policies. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal this weekend, Bessent said his priority will be to enact Trump's tax cuts while also introducing tariffs and cutting spending. And earnings easing continuing this week results from CrowdStrike and H.P. Health plus a slew of retailers set to report. The big news out this morning, Macy's shares are falling after delaying its earnings report. Now, the retailer disclosing an investigation revealed that an employee had hit over $100 million of expenses. And fresh economic data and Fed minutes this week will get all of it. It's going to offer us some insight into the central banks fight against inflation. Traders will closely parse through the Federal Reserve's November meeting minutes, consumer confidence, and PCE data, the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation, to help assess the outlook for rate cuts next year. Wall Street strategists remaining optimistic that stocks can continue to rally this year and next year, as they expect solid economic and earnings growth and additional relief on inflation according to RBC Capital Markets. Goldman Sachs, they expect to see the S&P 500 rally 4% alone in the next month. U.S. stock futures in the green to kick off the shortened trading week. Wall Street strategists, yeah, they're out with some more bullish predictions for this year and for 2025. You've got Goldman Sachs saying that this week will kick off a year-end rally that will take the S&P 500 up above 6,200. There you're taking a look at the U.S. stock futures here this morning. We're seeing green across the screen for the Dow, the S&P 500 futures, and the NASDAQ futures. The tech have been average up by about 7/10 of a percent. And really diving into some of the outlooks that we've seen, whether it's Goldman, whether it's Barclays, Barclays. They have their own call for 6,600 for 2025 that just came out here. And as we're continuing to think about what that means, they're looking at some of the EPS growth and the total S&P 500 EPS estimate of $271 up from $268. And so all of that considered, they're looking for even more exceptionalism in U.S. tech, really driving this in a virtual cycle between income and consumption remaining intact as well. Yeah, I think both equity prices and profit expectations are right around those record highs. So that has really been driving so much of the sentiment that we have seen now for quite some time. You talk about that euphoria that has really slowed the markets going back to the last 18 to 24 months when this talk really started. I guess more so resonating with investors when it comes to AI and the potential and what we are seeing there that certainly had been the leader now. And as we get toward the end of the year, we're talking about more of a broadening, a market breadth. That has been so critical. We've heard from so many strategists on the show over the last several months that we need to see that in order to continue this momentum to the upside. You mentioned some of the calls out this morning. One from Lori Kelvissino over at RBC caught my attention. She talked about the fact that she actually sees the S&P 500 set to reach 6,600 by the end of 2025. But within that, she does break down the fact that she does bake in the idea that we could see a 5 to 10% drawdown as well before too long. You talk about some of the froth and sentiment right now, higher valuations, leaving the S&P 500 vulnerable. And that is also a common theme that we have certainly seen from so many of these expectations or look-aheads that we are getting now from Wall Street into 2025. Yes, there's a lots of reason to be optimism. It don't be too discouraged if we do see that 5 to 10% pullback because many are arguing that that is well overdue at this point. Absolutely. Well, we've got a lot to really dive into here on the day. President-elect Trump on Friday announcing billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Besant as his pick for Treasury Secretary. Stock futures and bonds rally on the news joining us now. We've got Ed Mills, who's the Raymond James, Washington policy analyst. Ed, just want to start off with your reaction to this pick. I think for Donald Trump picking Scott Besant for Treasury Secretary, this is the exact pick the market wanted. Someone with significant investment experience, especially in the macro environment. If we look at the Trump policies on trade, on tariff, having someone who understands the knock-on effect of that and can help position the United States to mitigate that, especially in other parts of his agenda, I'm sure we'll talk about tax cuts. I'm sure we'll talk about deregulation. But this is who the market wanted. And getting this pick is part of the reason why we see futures in the green this morning. One of the things that is really jumping out to the street this morning is maybe it's going to lead to a more measured approach. We talk about some of the extremes that we've heard from President-elect Trump, and very much that that maybe is the driver here to this morning's early market reaction to this pick. We actually got the chance to speak with Scott Besant earlier this year, back in July. About then candidate Trump's proposed 60% tariffs on China. I want to play a quick sound bite of what we heard from Besant. We hear 60% tariffs on China. That's the beginning of a maximalist negotiating position. And that's the way President Trump negotiates. I would be surprised if we ever hit that. But I think given his record in Trump 1.0, he has a lot of credibility in using tariffs to negotiate. And are you confident that we are going to see that more measured approach? And I guess maybe what should investors then be expecting when it comes to some of these policies? Yeah, Shauna, here at Raymond James, we put out an investor's guide to Trump 2.0 as it relates to taxes and tariffs last week. And it's exactly what we said. There is going to be a certain part of the Donald Trump agenda that is trying to pursue that maximalist pressure. But Trump is also a negotiator. So when we see Howard Lutnik at commerce, that's the maximalist at commerce pushing for that. At Treasury, this is a good balance. Someone who has called for this to be layered in. Someone who will be directly negotiating with Congress on that tax bill. And my expectation is in that tax bill, they're going to give the president new authorities to enforce reciprocal tariffs. And so what Donald Trump will say to countries across the world is, if you have barriers on US goods, I am going to put on tariffs. If you are willing to take those tariffs off, we can do a free trade agreement. So anything that's balanced, anything that's layered in, is going to be viewed as a positive to this market versus kind of that maximalist, impulsive push for tariffs on day one. You know, or Ed, I'm sorry, Ed, as we're thinking about the Treasury pick here, Mr. Besant, and understanding more broadly what people should expect to come forward. I like the way that you kind of summarized it in the three arrows and the prongs that people should expect, summarize that for us and why that matters for the markets. Yeah, so Mr. Besant has a three point economic plan, the three arrows of 3% GDP growth, reducing the budget deficit down to 3%. The big question I have is reducing it via growth or through the cuts that we have at Doge. And then increasing US energy production by 3 million barrels a day. To the extent that that is an economic policy of the Trump administration, I think the market certainly would cheer on that predictability. We've highlighted some of the areas where if it is more on those cuts, on getting that 3%, because we've been hovering in the higher 8%, 9%, 10% range over the last couple of years, if we're trying to do that through cuts, that's where the market in specific sectors, we're thinking about defense, other government services as the losers there. But if those are the economic policies of this administration, those are very market positive policies, something that will be cheered on, Brad. And what do you think this tells us? Just the fact that Trump didn't go with Lutnik and we know many of his allies, many of his close supporters were pushing how we're Lutnik as the pick for Treasury Secretary. Does that really show us that maybe Musk does have some sort of, there is a limit to the influence that he does have over the incoming Trump administration? Yeah, I think to, for me, it was, Scott Vestons was the front-runner all along. And so there is a nice part of having someone who we anticipated getting the role, actually getting the role, something that happened in Trump 1.0. It was Stephen Mnuchin all along, actually got the role. Lutnik getting a role within the administration over at Commerce, where he can direct the tariff policies, maybe oversee the US trade representative. That's a good balancing act, as I mentioned. I think it would have been more destabilizing, more concerning if Lutnik was the treasury pick for this market because of his aggressiveness on tariffs and the way in which he's embraced it. So to me, this actually shows a return to the predictability that the market is seeking versus anything that is a surprise. As it relates to Elon Musk, he's going to be incredibly influential. But one of the big questions is, is there is a shelf life where a lot of individuals are round Donald Trump. If he does not think that he has the influence, does he move on to a different project? Is there a following out? That's what we're focused on at Raymond James as it relates to the impact of his Doge initiative and how successful that can be, Shauna. >> And let's push this forward real quick, the next steps. You talk about the fact that we don't have the NEC chair, obviously. Yeah, you talk about some of the key treasury personnel. What do you think this pick then tells us about Trump's likely picks that we could see in those positions? >> Yeah, for the banking regulators, I think this is absolutely part of the deregulatory playbook and something really favorable for financials, especially banks, a lot of M&A. At NEC, the National Economic Council, we're looking to see who gets that job. Is it Kevin Warsh, the former Fed governor? Does he establish a kind of shadow Fed position from within the White House? At Raymond James, when customers ask what their biggest concern is, oftentimes, the independence of the Fed, anything that would disrupt that, that would be unwelcome news to this market. >> And Mel, it's always great to get your insight. Raymond James, Washington policy analyst. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. >> Well, markets are excited about Scott Besson as the pick for Treasury Secretary with bond yields and the dollar, as well as gold all following his futures are pushing higher this morning. Joining us now for more, we want to bring in Jay Woods. He's freedom capital, markets chief global strategist. We have some of the reaction up there in the screen. We've got futures, Jay, pushing to the upside here this morning. I'm curious to get your interpretation of how Wall Street is reading this pick. >> Yeah, I mean, the pick was what we were expecting. No surprises, just like your previous guest had said. So, it's business as usual in a bull market. And what we're seeing is stocks run to the forefront, continued rotation in this market. And we're seeing some technology sectors like software. And now, Cyber start to lead the tech sector. And we're waiting on NVIDIA to take that next leg higher. Kind of stalled last week, but wasn't a bad thing. Resting is sometimes what you do before you take that next leg higher. So as for the pick, it didn't really move the needle one way or another. I just think we're going through a holiday short and week. We're going to focus on data. And these picks will move markets minute to minute. But overall, it's not going to impact us that greatly. >> Is there a pick that the markets could sour on them to the other side of that? Because we've seen a lot of potential names we put out for a range of positions. And so at this juncture, it seems like the market, at least on the back of this best in news, have enough to kind of get a sense of where Trump is going to be bringing in some of the adults in the room, if you will. >> Yeah, well, this is the pick that we were focused on. We don't get mixed up in the political headlines. And what loyalist candidate was appointed to what and how that's going to impact the world. We just want to know what's going to impact the stock market. And for this pick, this was a good thing. He's going to push back a little bit on the tariffs. So we had some concern that we could go a little overboard. We saw what happened in Trump 1.0. When that tariff started, it was believed January 1st quarter of 2018. And we saw a 10% correction from a very strong bull market. So right now, no, we're going to focus on earnings. We're going to focus on year end. We've got nice tailwinds as we go into things. And we continue to see rotation in this market. To me, that's a positive and let these headlines in the Trump administration play out. I'm just focused on the market. >> So let's talk about where we are here this morning. We take a look at the S&P right around that 6,000 level, not too far from regaining that. What do you see as the upside between now and year end and looking ahead to 2025? >> Yeah, I think, knowing as a technician, the trends and the patterns we're seeing. I expect us to have probably a 10% game between now and the end of Q1. So you get 5% now, you get 5% there. You do the math at 6600, boom, I don't like to just throw out those numbers, but it is quite simple. We have leadership that continues to change. What was the big sector last week, materials? Who saw that one coming? Before that, energy. Energy was the lagging sector before the election. Now it's one of the big sectors. Guess what? Energy ran up on the first Trump election and guess what? It came back in. So this is what I like to see technology right in the middle of the pack. I still think technology is where you want to be over the long term, but healthy. We're going software, we're going cyber, we're getting away from some of those big magnificent names in Apple right now. But it will have its time and this is exactly what I want to see set up as we go into the first year of Trump. And then here's a fun fact for you, in 2017, first year of the Trump administration, we talked about the headlines in these crazy picks. What did the market do? It went up 19% up every single month slowly, but steadily, not one 2% drawdown in all of 2017. You talk about volatility and headlines, we got that, but the market didn't care. It just soldered on. And I think the setup, as we see, he's inheriting a bull run. He's going to continue it. He loves the stock market. He's autographed copies of updates. We remember those days. Those were a little crazy. So he uses that as a scorecard and I anticipate in the first few months at least, we'll continue that uptrend. We'll see what the second half shakes out to be. We only got 15 seconds, so we've got to go yes, no. With this next FOMC meeting, do the markets need to see a cut in order for a Santa Claus reality to be locked in? No. We don't need to see a cut. In fact, I'd be surprised at this point we get a cut, watch a PC on Wednesday. We've got a little dovish rhetoric turning hawkish. To me, we're in a good place, but we want to stay on the downward slope. But right now, I don't think a cut is mandatory come December. Okay, the woods of freedom capital markets, thanks so much for taking the time this morning. Thank you. Go birds. Go birds. Guys, coming up on Morning Brief, we count you down to the opening bell on Wall Street. The stocks look to open, hey, in some Kelly Green. Plus, we dig into Macy's pre-limb results as the company delays earnings, details to come on that one, and we'll also own it on Big Tech in Washington. As the DOJ looks for a historic win against Google, Alphabet, whatever you're calling them, home, going to war with DOJ right now. We'll discuss that much more on the other side. When unprecedented times are all the time, it's time to start walking the talk with PwC. Leaders like you turn to PwC to see and stay ahead. Upskill your workforce, use intelligent automation, and transform big ideas into break-through outcomes. Explore the human-led tech-powered solutions that help you thrive. It's all part of PwC. Learn more at PwC.com. Now time for some of today's trending tickers. You can scan the QR code below to track the best and worst-performing stocks of the session with Yahoo Finance's trending tickers page. Well, Macy's, they were set to report third-quarter earnings this week, but the release has now been delayed until December 11th after an investigation revealed an employee hit more than $100 million in expenses. Still, a slew of retail earnings are on tap this week. You've got Best Buy, Nordstrom, Coles, Dick's Sporting Goods, all set to report and provide further insight into the health of the consumer as we head into the busy holiday shopping season. Joining us now, let's bring in Stacey Woodlitz, who is the SW Retail Advisor's President. Great to have you here with us today. Let's just start on Macy's here, especially as we've already got some of the preliminary results, and we can compare that against some of the consensus estimates coming into this. One of the headlines that a lot of the investors now in the South there might be focused in on net sales were down by about 3.1% during the quarter comp sales down by about 3% as well. What does that spell out to you about some of the challenges beyond a rogue employee at Macy's? Well, beyond the rogue employee and the 100 million missing, I think what we've seen for the past couple of years is this is nothing new, department stores are losing traffic, they're losing share, Macy's is no exception. Really you've looked at brands and retailers that have grown double digits to be conservative since pre-COVID, and Macy's really just hasn't grown and they continue to calm down. I think right now it's very much when you look at the department stores, whether it's Nordstrom or Macy's, it's the focus on a flat to slightly return to growth and keeping operating margins intact. We certainly have been through a period where there's less promotions generally in the marketplace right now, which is a great thing. It's helping everybody who's underperforming on the top line because they're not having to keep up with the neighbors and giveaway product in order to get people through the door. That's very much what I saw over the Black Friday weekend. Promotions were generally flat to leaner with a few exceptions. Just to clarify too here, looking across the Macy's net sales and Macy's main that were down as I was mentioning before versus Bloomingdale's and Blue Mercury, Blue Mercury, that was also up for comp and net sales and then Bloomingdale's up both on a comp and net sales basis too. What is that signal to you about just the mindset of the consumer that we're seeing even going into this holiday season that could permeate and overflow into 2025 as well where there's more of a prioritization on the little luxuries in that Blue Mercury segment and then you still do have the luxury spenders out there, still at least picking through the aisles if you will or online. Beauty's been on fire and it still is. Even target that was a significant underperformer from last week, the stock was down 20%. Beauty was up very nicely and that's been the story. If you look at health results, we'll hear from Altas soon and that's obviously where people have been spending money so I expect that to keep working here. It's really the discretionary, the general merchandise category that's been tough and there's certainly been a little bit of deflation there and of course, you've seen the likes of Walmart which is gaining share of the higher end customer across the board. Their majority of their comp stores sales gains came from the wealthier $100,000 and plus customer so that tells you a lot about consumer behavior and how everybody's looking for value here. You look at TgX's numbers, incredibly strong, traffic up so I think the customer's really looking for value and there are definitely spots, for example, Abercrombie we're going to hear from this week that is still outperforming margins are intact, promotions lower at Hollister as well. There are a couple of brands that have real turnarounds that have staying power and in addition to that, you look at the value players and that's where the traffic is going. Yes, Stacy, you have a couple of, you phrase it as winning the turkey trot so far. You just mentioned Abercrombie, you also like airy, you also like deckerish, your gap is also on that list. Is there a common thread among those picks as to why you see them outperforming at this time? Yes, and these are specific turnaround stories. For example, the gap was just promoting, promoting, promoting, the merchandise have fallen off, same thing in the Navy. Now you're seeing better marketing campaigns, better merchandise and by the way, the promotions are down year over year so now you have a better operating margin. That's one bucket, certainly Abercrombie has cast a much wider net of their consumer. It used to be younger and very specific. Now it's widespread, it's party dresses, you would throw anthropology in the same bucket there. So I think they're very specific turnaround stories and again, the second bucket would be that the consumer's looking for value, inflation has been absolutely killing the mid to low end consumer and they're going to Walmart for the best bang for their buck, particularly on groceries. All right, Stacy Woodlitz, SW retail advisors, President. Thanks so much. Good to see you. We're taking a look at another trending ticker today, Tesla, UBS, saying that the stocks recent rise is being driven by animal spirits rather than actual improvement in the company's fundamentals. That's never stopped, Tesla. Before you're looking at gains, a nearly 3% here ahead of the open is not stopping the momentum at all. If you take a look at this morning's trading action, but going into this note that the team is led by Joseph Spack over at UBS, he's talking about the fact that removing consumer tax credits from EV purchases, for example, could force Tesla to have to cut prices here. He also noted that while regulatory environment under Trump may be more conducive to AI ventures, he also went on to talk about the fact that Tesla does not have a robo-taxi ready to take advantage of the relaxed rules. So we certainly have seen this enthusiasm to say the least surrounding Tesla stocks since we got the election results not too long ago. The stock is at about $350 billion of market cap since election day, such as speaks to the excitement by investors, regardless of whether or not the fundamentals, I guess, support it. Look, there's going to have to be a lot that goes right for robo-taxis to be real in the realm of the roads that we are on day in and day out right now. I mean, right now, the company, even within the most recent earnings call, was talking about just two states, two states out of 50 that could potentially see more lax regulation to come, that being California and Texas. And so even with that in mind, as the test cases, you're going to need to bring on more states to really satisfy some of the larger investor appetites for being able to scale this out more broadly when it comes to robo-taxi, that also, and the cybercab, I should say, that also plays more largely into the theme that a lot of investors have really started to navigate towards, which is Tesla as an AI play, Tesla as an AI company because of all the ingested data and that being able to inform everything from the dojo into the cybercab and how all of those things come together, that really formulates and solidifies why there is more of the belief that this could receive an AI multiple. At some point, is it already there? I don't know. But I think at some point, what we've seen from Tesla come forward, at least in statements, needs to come to fruition more than just promises, which it's missed that on the cyber truck. It's missed that on timing for the taxi service as well to this point too. All right. Let's talk Intel. Well, according to the New York Times, the Biden administration is trimming Intel's chip giants. What was going to be an $8.5 billion grant will now be less than $8 billion after the government considered $3 billion. The company is receiving to make chips for the US military shares right now. They're up by about 1.8%. Don't look now. We will for you, but Intel stock, it's been a bumpy ride to say the least over the course of 2024, down a little over 48%, I believe, is what I have on my screen today. They're taking a look at the year today, move 51% lower over the course of this year, despite some of the fanfare that certainly transpired early in the year in the first quarter because of grants like this. Yes, certainly. I think we're seeing this move to the upside, even though it might be less than what was initially expected here for Intel. It's the fact that they are getting cash awards, something that Gelsinger, the CEO, Pat Gelsinger CEO of Intel, has very much expressed a frustration with over the last several months here. Many of the interviews that he's done, even though he's here on Yahoo Finance, he has presented some dissatisfaction with the fact that they have not yet been able to receive those cash awards. So, yes, they have benefited from some of those tax breaks that were included in the chips act, but not the cash awards yet. So, the fact that this is coming, that is being interpreted as at least a step in the right direction, but you are right. Then take a look at the New York Times report that was out over the weekend talking about the fact that it actually might be $500 million less than what was initially anticipated. You can look at that as it may be a bit of a disappointment here for Intel, but overall they could be getting it. It looks like they are getting the $8 billion of cash. So, again, a great step here for Intel at the time when it's very much, very much needed. All right, keep it right here. I'm Yahoo. Finally, as we got much more of your market action ahead, you're watching Morning Brief. JCPenney The holiday season is here, and at JCPenney, everybody gets more. Like for your loved one, designer perfumes from Versace or Carolina Herrera, or the exclusive messy fragrance, for the foodie in your life, a cast iron Dutch oven, or cured coffee maker, or for the kids, all the toys they love from Disney, Barbie, Lego, and more. JCPenney, make it count, shop in store or online. Just seconds away from the opening bell, there you're seeing some clapping, some cheering, taking place. People are absolutely besides themselves as we're about to begin this holiday shortened trading week here. There, you're hearing the opening bell at the NYSE Global Ship Lease, ringing the opening bell up there on the podium, and on the linoleum floors over at the NASDAQ, you've got the great folks from YH and ringing the opening bell. Some funfetti for you, and you get some funfetti, and you get funfetti. You get the picture. All right. That's the opening bell. Let's do a quick check of the markets. Dow Jones Industrial Average right now, higher by about 8/10 of a percent to start off today's trading activity. We're also taking a look at the Tech Heavy NASDAQ. That begins the day in positive territory. We like that. That's up by about 3/4 of a percent. We'll call that in the S&P 500. That too, seeing some gains to start off today's activity. As we always love to do, 11 S&P 500 sectors, we've got them loaded up for you here on the screen. It works, so you don't have to energy pulling up the caboose, but it's still positive. That's good. We've got all 11 sectors in positive territory, and we're led right now by Consumer Discretionary. Big week for some consumer discretionary names is we get a host of retail companies that are going to be reporting. Since we've got a little bit of the retail vibe going on here, I don't think I'm going to step on Jared's toes with this one, so I'll just go ahead and take a quick look at some of those retail names, since we're going to get a bevy of them reporting over the course of this week. I'm going to make this equal view so that you can see all of those names. Dick's Sporting Goods, one of them that we're going to hear from, Macy's. We already heard from them. They're actually moving lower on preliminary results, and an employee, Tisk Tisk, who had something to do with some accounting issues over there. Ultimately, that's being priced into the shares here on the day, and then we've got some other big names, Best Buy, also coming out this week. We're going to keep continuing to keep close tabs on the retail sector for much more on today's opening cross. Let's get on over to Yahoo Finance, this is Jared Blickery. He's got a full look at what's moving. Hey, Jared. Thank you, Brad, and I'll get to retail in a minute. Big week here, and retail is one of the leading sectors since the election, but I want to go to the Russell 2000, and let me show you a three-year chart. Let's make it a five, and I'll put some lines here so you can see that we are right back up to these highs that we saw in 2021. There's a lot of excitement for the small caps. Might they finally make that record high? They have been the laggard so far, but on this latest rebound, they have been leaders. So lots of expectations there. Just want to remind that if this ends up being a cup and handle, well, that handle can take another few months, maybe even a few quarters, so you might have to sit on your hands for a little bit. Want to take a look at the bond market, because the 10-year T-note yield is down by the most in three months. That's a five-year chart, so let me zoom into a three-month, and you can see we are heading down off of these relatively recent highs. These are the highest levels we've seen in about a year, and that's pretty significant. I was putting some pressure on risk markets, and that was also being expressed by a higher dollar, but the dollar, as well, is down. I think this is off of the Treasury Secretary announcement, just a sigh of relief there, so that's probably behind that. I think that erases some of the concerns over the dollar in the meantime, but very close to those highs, we want to keep an eye on that, especially with regard to its potential to be a wrecking ball. This is just over the sectors real quick. It's retail. Now we have interest rate-sensitive sectors leading real estate and utilities. We had tech leading early, but that is now down to the second best place, but everything's still in green territory here. If we check on our leaders, XRT in the upper left, guess what? That is a retail ETF, so just confirming something what we've been talking about, solar. It looks like biotech, regional banks, disruption stocks, and home builders, really interesting mix of not only risk, but also value, but also some interest-rate plays there. Those are leading today. What's taking it back, CETA's Bitcoin, just wasn't able to punch through to 100,000 over the weekend. We'll see what happens this week, and we've got some more holidays towards the end of the week. I want to go back to, let's take a look at the EV sector. I wanted to show you what's going on with Tesla. I'll put on a three-year chart there. This is opening up at a two-year high, or, yeah, two or three-year high, so if it climbs in a positive territory, that will be the highest amount in three years, and, of course, the record highs are a little bit above that, so a little bit of territory to reclaim those highs, but a lot of excitement over Tesla as well today. Shauna. All right, Jared, thanks so much. It's time to get to our today's strategy session. Wall Street strategists are betting on more gains ahead, with Goldman Sachs out with a call that the S&P 500 will see a 4% rally into year-end, the benchmark, a tapping 6,200. Those are the expectations. Let's talk about it. Jimmy Lee, he's wealth consulting groups, CEO Jimmy, it's great to have you back here on Yahoo! Findance certainly has been an impressive year to say the least. Take a look at the S&P of 25, 26% since the start of the year. Do you think there's more room to go, and why or why not? I do, Shauna. Thanks for having me on. Good morning. Well, I think at the beginning of the year, if you'd have asked most analysts where they thought the S&P 500 was going to end up, certainly 6,000 wasn't very, very popular. But look where we're at today, we've had a dramatic rally. As you guys were just discussing, I think one of the healthiest parts of this rally is that now we've got the value parts of the market participating. So I think investors are trying to get some of that money, record money out of cash, and maybe not necessarily Chase, but look for areas where there are some values, such as the cyclical sectors, such as small cap stocks, we're very happy that we're seeing things broadening out beyond the Magnificent Seven. And I do think that we could have a nice little rally going into the end of the year. Certainly historically, end of November is typically good. I think that the elections taking one of the big variables out of the people's heads and investors' heads in terms of what's going on. I think so far, with all the cabinet picks, people are going back and forth on that a little bit in terms of what they think. But for the market, I think investors are very hopeful for next year, going into a lower interest rate environment with less regulation, and you're starting to see a little bit of these animal spirits that we talk about. Even with the slight pullback that we saw mid-November, that still had a lot of investors thinking, "Okay, what are the dip buying opportunities that we should still be most excited about? Are there opportunities, if we do see pullbacks or any type of chop even going into the year end and with any rally in mind that you're anticipating here, that would present such an opportunity? And if so, where? You know, Brad, I think that when tech sells off, although we don't think that people should be too overweight, the big tech names that have gone up the most, which led the market up so far going into the fourth quarter, we think that tech could also be a potential buy on the dips, though, on the pullbacks. But I am a little concerned that too many investors, I talked to too many people that have the names, like Nividia, that it's gone up so much, and they're holding on. And so I'm a little cautioned that the retail investor has too much of that in their portfolio, so I think diversification for them is important. That being said, I do like those cyclical sectors, and so in a small gap, I even like the idea of potentially the dollar going down as a theme over time, international stocks may be performing a little bit better. So we'll see how the tariff game plays out with Trump getting back in and how aggressive that gets or not and see how that disrupts China and oversees markets in Asia. But with that being said, I actually am a little bit bullish about some of those areas too that just have not been participating. And if you look at the rest of the S&P 500 outside of the magnificent seven, in the fourth quarter, we're going to start seeing this earnings shift to those names. And I think what we're hopeful for is that earnings are going to catch up to where the valuations are for the market. Jimmy, going back to what you were just saying about Trump's policies, is it going to be more of a wait-and-see than approach from your perspective, just in terms of the investment allocations and any changes then that you're making to your portfolios? You know, we caution investors not to take too much into consideration when it comes to who's in the White House or Congress for their allocation, but certainly we need to pay attention to that. I just think that what we're seeing now is more of a bullish story for investors' period. And the idea that earnings possibly could keep up with stock valuations. But there are those areas that are very expensive, right? So that's why I think there's a little bit of a cap on what we're seeing with tech on days like today. And where we're seeing like last week, small caps did a lot better than the technology in bigger stocks. And so some of those in, you know, sectors like financials, industrials, cyclical sectors like that we like. We've liked it all year long. Small caps are starting to finally catch up. In fact, small caps have performed better than SB 500 as of about 10 days ago. I don't think a lot of investors know that. Most investors are underweight small cap as well as international stocks and international stocks have suffered for a long time. But I think that's potentially a good area. Also bond investors with the tenure shooting up and surprising a lot of people after the first big breakup by the Fed, you know, I think bond investors have something to look forward to too as well next year as I think the tenure is going to come down. I'm looking at probabilities for the December Fed meeting here, Jimmy. And we posed this question earlier in the show. The probabilities right now are actually looking at about 55, 56 percent towards a cut here versus 44 percent keeping the rate the same at the December meeting. Does this market need a 25 basis point cut in order to see a Santa Claus rally locked in? Right. I sure would like one. I know that the futures market after Powell said that, you know, he doesn't have to be in a hurry to lower rates of people that like that. So I do believe interest rates are too high. I think it affects an area of the market that's very important to consumers, which is housing. So we'd like to see housing get, you know, more in balance with more houses on the market. So the supply and demand is a better match. We're starting to see numbers slow down in the new permits and home construction. So we could be in a little bit of a shortage shortage down the road. So I think interest rates need to come down sooner. And so I'm hopeful that the Fed does cut 25 in December. I don't think it'll be disaster if that doesn't happen. But I certainly that would definitely be a damper on the Santa Claus rally. Jimmy Lee of wealth consulting group. Jimmy, good to see you. Thanks so much for taking some time here with us after the opening bill. Thank you. It's time now for our chart of the day. Let's send it on over to catalyst co-host Madison Mills for a look at what Trump's treasury secretary pick means for the economy. Hey, Maddie. Hey, Brad. So take a look at this chart behind me here of the ballooning US debt. This is about to be on Scott Besson's balance sheet when he becomes the treasury secretary. He's going from about $600 million in assets under management to $35 trillion of debt to take a look at here. Now he has talked about his three arrows approach to this debt to quickly run through that. He wants to cut the deficit by 3% of gross domestic product by 2028 spur growth of GDP to the tune of 3% through deregulation. And he also wants to produce an additional $3 million of oil barrels per day in the coming years here. So that's a pretty growthy backdrop and usually that would present a central bank with a situation where they're having a lot of growth. Maybe they have to keep interest rates higher for longer. Higher rates typically mean a higher US dollar. But it's actually interesting. If we can flip the board over to the dollar today, we will see that the dollar hitting its lowest lows since November 7th since that election result. And you can see that dip just at the end of this chart here. And part of the reason behind that when I'm taking a look at some analyst reaction this morning is this idea that Besson might moderate some of Trump's growth here, potentially inflationary policies in my own conversation with him here on Yahoo Finance. He talked about the idea of coming in with those 60% tariff suggestion as a maximalist policy. He doesn't really see that actually coming to fruition. And this idea that given that the delay happened with Trump's Treasury Secretary pick that we also are potentially not necessarily seeing Trump's economic policies be really kind of hammered out at this point in time. We're still waiting for those economic policies to really kind of get some clarity around that moving forward. So all of that question in the room combined with the fact that Besson has potentially put out this idea that he is not necessarily going to go 100% with every single policy position from Trump that could be part of the reason why we are seeing a little bit of weakness on the dollar here. Also, cities global head of research had a note out in reaction to the dollar move this morning saying that they're going to short the euro relative to the peso moving forward here. They see the peso as a potential beneficiary here coming off less badly on the heels of those tariffs relative to what we could see in China and Europe. So I think that's just something for investors to watch out as a potential contrarian FX trade as we move forward here guys. All right, Manny. Thanks for pointing that out. We've got much more on today's market action coming up. Stay tuned. You're watching Morning Brief. Want to shop Walmart Black Friday deals first? Walmart Plus members get early access to our hottest deals. Join now and give 50% off a one year annual membership. Shop Black Friday deals first with Walmart Plus. See terms at walmartplus.com. The hype surrounding AI benefiting names across cloud and hyperscaler space over the past year or so. What Bush now saying that the AI revolution is hitting its next phase software stocks are next in line to surge. Let's talk about that and more we want to bring in Scott David. He's the managing director of equity research at Web Bush Security Scott. It's great to have you back here on Yahoo Finance. So to put it in Web Bush's words, AI revolution hitting its next gear. What does that look like? Well, you have the first part of the psycho, which was the semiconductors, you know, making significant amounts of money as the cloud companies change their architecture to be able to perform in an AI world and now you're getting to the application phase of the psycho, which should benefit software companies as well as the cloud providers. And then phase three of this will ultimately be the consumer facing companies, you know, figuring out how to use the technology in ways that actually can drive increased interactions with consumers. We're entering phase two in 2025, which is going to be very good, we think, for software companies and for cloud providers. And so with that in mind, I mean, one of the elements of and perhaps that sits at the Venn diagram of that is cybersecurity as well here. How do you envision AI really advancing and helping the cybersecurity companies sell their advancements that they can make and the client base that they're able to service even more so as a result of AI selling that to the analysts and to the investor community? So anytime there's an increase in activity, consumer engagement and usage of technology that leads to the opportunities for bad guys to enter the scene, which is what benefits the cybersecurity, you know, companies considerably. And so as we kind of enter this next phase, it also should benefit the cybersecurity companies, you know, as well. And so that would be part of this, this theme entering 2025. Scott, when it comes to some of that outperformance, are there specific names that you think or the team thinks is best positioned at this, at this juncture? So Dan, I've leads the software, you know, segment coverage and, you know, some of his ideas include sales force, upgraded elastic and snowflake today, and also has been recommending Palantir as well and so those are names that I would highlight on the consumer facing side or the ones that have the cloud hyperscaler businesses built in. Of course, Amazon would lead that in my coverage and then followed by Alphabet. And so all of those things in mind, as you're thinking about what type of investments they're continuing to make, how are you kind of grading the capital expenditures that you're hearing from these companies and the timeline for which they pay off? So they're high and going higher. You know, I think the interesting part is I'm not sure the semiconductor part of the cycle is quite over yet because numbers are going to continue to rise there as well. So when you look at Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon and Meta, each company has elevated Catholics and the numbers increasing as a percentage of total revenue going into 2025. And so you want to be certain that these companies can begin to monitor as that. Microsoft has begun to do so and we're starting to see that with the other companies as well. Scott, let's get to one of the overhangs within the tech sector at large and that's the battle inside the Beltway. When you take a look at the DOJ's latest moves in particular, some of the push that they're coming here for in regards to Alphabet and what they want to see happen, how should investors be approaching the space, given the fact that we're going to have a change in the White House, the change coming to the FTC and there is so much uncertainty regarding that space. So you have to take the, you have to take, and I apologize for the lag on the background, but you have to take it all with a grain of salt because of the changing administration. And you know, I think that Lincoln likely going to be out. And so anything that's happening now, you have to give it three to six months to really detune what the next, you know, part of this cycle is going to be. And I'm actually confident that the internet companies are going to hold up that well under the new administration. You know, I guess similar on the threat of regulation and the anticipated deregulation that business executives are starting to factor into their outlooks for the next year, do you anticipate that some of the companies under your coverage can benefit from deregulation, given that so many software companies have had an acquired or gross strategy for decades at this point? Any increase in M&A is going to improve the sector and any reduced regulation is going to favor all the mega cap companies. And that's the, you know, we think that that's going to happen with a little institute of four years. So it benefits the mega caps because of reduced regulation that benefits small mid caps because they can be acquired again. And so you start to get premium multiples built back into snid cap companies that for the past half decade, just haven't existed. Scott Devin. Cash security is managing director Scott. We didn't even hear the dog barking in the background. So you've got excellent noise cancellation on your headphones. He's still going. So. Wow. Thank you. Having a day. Having a time. Thanks so much. Bye. Bye. Coming up Anglo set to sell its coal business in a deal worth $3.8 billion. We're breaking down the details next. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Forget the frustration of picking commerce platforms when you switch your business to Shopify. The global commerce platform that supercharges you're selling wherever you sell with Shopify. You'll harness the same intuitive features, trusted apps and powerful analytics used by the world's leading brands. Sign up today for your $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com/tech. I'll lowercase. We're taking a closer look at some trending tickers this morning and we're doing it in 30 seconds each. Let's go. First up, you've got Anglo American reaching a deal with Peabody Energy to sell its steel making coal business in a deal worth up to $3.8 billion here. Now Peabody set to pay Anglo $2 billion upfront in cash as part of the deal Anglo. Also looking to spin off its stake in Anglo American platinum, limited and exit its nickel business as it restructures. It seems like pretty much everything was on the table here. They were looking to divest or sell off its diamond, its platinum, the steel making coal and nickel businesses really simplifying the portfolios, the effort here. Let's take a look at Sony. It's looking to develop a mobile handheld gaming console to potentially rival that a Nintendo switch. It's according to Bloomberg, Sony has yet to confirm any details or plans about its smaller console, but reportedly it would allow users to play PlayStation 5 games. Nintendo is expected to launch a follow-up to the switch in 2025. Of course, this could also potentially compete with the hardware, mobile hardware that we could be getting from Xbox, the maker there, Microsoft. But again, this is very early ages in this talk, as yet to be confirmed, whether or not this will actually come to fruition, but again, good to keep in mind as we take a look out to the next several quarters. Yeah. All right. My goodness, bring it back. So much nostalgia here. All right. Anyway, finally, Rocket Lab, completing two launches successfully within 24 hours setting a company record for fastest turnaround between two missions, key bank capital markets, raising the price target for Rocket Lab to $27. That's up from $12. If we can, let's take a look at not just today's move. We're seeing on the screen, Rocket Lab shares up by about 1.4% we'll round that off to, but over the course of this year as well, just taking a look at the activity 344% rise in Rocket Lab that we've seen over the course of 2024 alone. All right. Well, that does it for Morning Brief. Keep it right here on Yahoo Finance. We've got catalysts coming for you next. You just listened to the Morning Brief from Yahoo Finance, heard a reference to a charter graphic? For more information, you can watch the full video broadcast by finding the link in our show notes. Thanks for listening. [BLANK_AUDIO]
It's the first day of this shortened trading week — for Thanksgiving — and stock futures are already buzzing on President-elect Donald Trump's decision to nominate Scott Bessent as the US Treasury secretary.
Seana Smith and Brad Smith tackle several of this morning's biggest market stories ahead of the opening bell.
Takeaway:
President-elect Donald Trump has pushed forward a nomination for Key Square Group Founder and CEO Scott Bessent to be the next US Secretary of the Treasury in his Cabinet. US stock futures (ES=F, NQ=F, YM=F) are reacting positively to this news Monday morning.
Department store Macy's (M) is delaying the release of its third quarter earnings report after it was discovered an employee hid up to $154 million in expenses for the retailer.
The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index — the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge — is due out this Wednesday, November 27, alongside the central bank's November meeting minutes for this week.
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