Market Snapshot
| Dow | 47850.73 | -31.96 | (-0.07%) | | Nasdaq | 23505.17 | +51.04 | (0.22%) | | SP 500 | 6857.11 | +7.40 | (0.11%) | | 10-yr Note |
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| | NYSE | Adv 1306 | Dec 1438 | Vol 1.15 bln | | Nasdaq | Adv 2718 | Dec 1972 | Vol 7.50 bln |
Industry Watch
| Strong: Information Technology, Energy, Financials, Industrials, Communication Services |
| | Weak: Health Care, Consumer Staples, Materials, Consumer Discretionary, Utilities, Real Estate |
Moving the Market
--Back-and-forth action ahead of next week's FOMC decision
--Mixed action across mega-cap names
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Major averages drit sideways as investors await PCE report
04-Dec-25 16:25 ET
Dow -31.96 at 47850.73, Nasdaq +51.04 at 23505.17, S&P +7.40 at 6857.11
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%), and DJIA (-0.1%) spent the session in a tight range near their unchanged levels amid a lack of notable developments today.
Tight breadth figures (decliners outpaced advancers by a roughly 7-to-6 margin on the NYSE while advancers held a roughly 3-to-2 advantage on the Nasdaq) and nearly even sector strength culminated in a sideways drift for the major averages today.
The health care sector (-0.7%) finished tied for the widest loss today, highlighting the modesty of today's moves at both the sector and the index level.
The consumer staples sector (-0.7%) also lagged despite Dollar General (DG 125.21, +15.32, +13.94%) finishing as the best-performing S&P 500 name after a strong beat-and-raise Q3 earnings report, while a 0.2% loss in the utilities sector rounds out a weak day for defensive sectors.
Meanwhile, the consumer discretionary sector (-0.5%) faced pressure in its homebuilder names, which saw the iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (-2.1%) give back yesterday's gain, while Amazon (AMZN 229.11, -3.27, -1.41%) was a laggard across mega-cap stocks.
The mega-cap cohort saw some notable stock-specific moves, both higher and lower, which ultimately canceled each other out to a flattish finish for the Vanguard Mega Cap Growth ETF (+0.1%).
Meta Platforms (META 661.53, +21.93, +3.43%) was a standout, trading higher after Bloomberg reported that the company is considering slashing its budget for its metaverse group by up to 30% next year. The potential budget cuts signal a strategic pivot, freeing up billions to reinvest in higher-ROI AI projects that are proving more effective at driving revenue and profits.
Despite Meta's advance, a loss in Alphabet (GOOG 318.39, -2.23, -0.70%) kept gains modest in the communication services sector (+0.4%), though it still finished near the top of today's underwhelming leaderboard.
The information technology sector (+0.4%) also managed a modest gain despite mixed performances across its mega-cap components. Apple (AAPL 280.70, -3.45, -1.21%) finished lower, while NVIDIA (NVDA 183.46, +3.87, +2.15%) notched a solid gain despite relative weakness across chipmakers.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index (-0.9%) hit session lows late in the afternoon after Reuters reported that bipartisan senators have introduced a bill that will block the Trump administration from removing chip export restrictions to China. Intel (INTC 40.50, -3.26, -7.45%) was the worst-performing S&P 500 name today.
Elsewhere in the sector, Salesforce (CRM 247.65, +8.93, +3.74%) traded higher after topping earnings expectations and issuing upbeat guidance, while Sandisk (SNDK 213.31, +18.93, +9.74%) recaptured some of its losses from recent sessions.
Outside of the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 (+0.7%) continued its run of outperformance this week as the market remains expectant that the Fed will deliver a rate cut at next week's FOMC meeting.
With that backdrop, the major averages are maintaining their modest week-to-date gains heading into Friday's session. Attention now turns to tomorrow's release of the September PCE Price Index (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%), though it's unlikely to sway sentiment in a meaningful way given that expectations for a rate cut at next week's FOMC meeting are already almost fully priced in. However, the data could influence the expected policy path for early 2026, as the market largely anticipates a "hawkish cut" next week that would dampen expectations for an additional move in January.
U.S. Treasuries retreated on Thursday, lifting yields back to their highest levels of the week. The 2-year note yield settled up four basis points to 3.53%, and the 10-year note yield settled up five basis points to 4.11%.
- Nasdaq Composite: +21.7% YTD
- S&P 500: +16.6% YTD
- Russell 2000: +13.5% YTD
- DJIA: +12.5% YTD
- S&P Mid Cap 400: +6.3% YTD
Reviewing today's data:
- Weekly Continuing Claims 1.939 mln; Prior was revised to 1.943 mln from 1.960 mln, Weekly Initial Claims 191K (Briefing.com consensus 220K); Prior was revised to 218K from 216K
- The key takeaway from the report is initial claims dropped to their lowest level in nearly two years, which is an encouraging sign about the health of a labor market at a time when visibility remains reduced due to some missing Employment Situation reports from the BLS.
- October Trade Balance DELAYED (Briefing.com consensus -$61.3 bln); Prior -$59.6 bln
- September Factory Orders 0.2%; Prior was revised to 1.3% from 1.4%
- The key takeaway from the report is that orders increased again in September despite a big jump in August with new orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft, which is a proxy for business spending, jumping 0.9% for the second month in a row.
Chipmakers hit session lows
04-Dec-25 15:25 ET
Dow -91.96 at 47790.73, Nasdaq +3.67 at 23457.80, S&P -5.26 at 6844.45
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.1%), Nasdaq Composite (flat), and DJIA (-0.2%) continue to trade in a subdued fashion just before the close.
The PHLX Semiconductor Index (-1.2%) has slumped to session lows after Reuters reported that bipartisan senators have introduced a bill that will block the Trump administration from removing chip export restrictions to China.
Despite today's weakness across chipmakers, NVIDIA (NVDA 182.52, +2.93, +1.63%) holds a solid gain, and the information technology sector (+0.2%) remains in positive territory.
Bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery heats up
04-Dec-25 15:00 ET
Dow -87.34 at 47795.35, Nasdaq +14.41 at 23468.54, S&P -3.32 at 6846.39
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (flat), Nasdaq Composite (+0.1%), and DJIA (-0.1%) returned to their flatlines after a brief dip lower at the bottom of the hour.
The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD 24.29, -0.28, -1.12%) is heating up, with CNBC reporting that Netflix (NFLX 103.20, -0.76, -0.73%) is now the leading bidder based on how WBD is reportedly valuing the offers.
However, Paramount Skydance (PSKY 14.69, +0.02, +0.16%), which is also a bidder for the company, raised concerns that Netflix's bid would "never close" due to regulatory concerns, according to The Wall Street Journal.
S&P 500 Slips as Casino Stocks Lag; Sandisk, GE Vernova, Generac Lead on Upgrades and Weather Boost
04-Dec-25 14:30 ET
Dow -128.04 at 47754.65, Nasdaq -41.06 at 23413.07, S&P -13.37 at 6836.34
[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (-0.20%) is in second place amid a recent drop in the major averages, down now about 13 points.
Briefly, S&P 500 constituents Sandisk (SNDK 211.51, +17.13, +8.81%), GE Vernova (GEV 633.28, +31.31, +5.20%), and Generac (GNRC 164.52, +5.35, +3.36%) dot the top of the standings. SNDK reclaims a portion of recent losses today, GEV enjoys decent gains amid a target bump to $720 from $710 out of Barclays, while GNRC rallies as the nation braces for cold weather over the coming days.
Meanwhile, Wynn Resorts (WYNN 123.85, -7.68, -5.84%) is among today's worst laggards despite a dearth of corporate news, though broader losses are rippling through the entire casino sector.
Gold Edges Higher on Softer Jobs Data, Rate-Cut Bets Despite Steady Dollar
04-Dec-25 14:00 ET
Dow +3.58 at 47886.27, Nasdaq +28.65 at 23482.78, S&P +6.15 at 6855.86
[BRIEFING.COM] The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (+0.12%) is in front of the major averages with about two hours to go on Thursday, up about 29 points.
Gold futures settled $10.50 higher (+0.3%) at $4,243.00/oz, supported by rising expectations of a Fed rate cut after softer U.S. employment data. A weaker dollar and persistent macro uncertainty added to safe-haven demand, keeping gold firmly bid.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar Index is up less than +0.1% to $98.94.
Kroger Lower After Mixed Q3 Results Amid More Cautious Consumer Trends (KR)
Kroger (KR) is sharply lower today after reporting its Q3 (Oct) results this morning. The grocery giant extended its more-than-five-year streak of EPS beats, though the upside was narrower than recent quarters. Revenue was just in line with expectations, increasing 0.7% yr/yr to $33.86 bln. It also narrowed its full-year guidance for EPS and comps to $4.75-4.80 (prior $4.70-4.80) and +2.8-3.0% (prior +2.7-3.4%). The mid-point of its new EPS guidance was a bit shy of analyst expectations.
- Identical sales (ex-fuel) rose +2.6% but softened from Q2 as several pressures weighed on customer behavior, including macro uncertainty, reduced SNAP benefits late in the quarter, and more cautious spending from middle and lower income households.
- Customers made smaller, more frequent trips and cut back on discretionary items, while food, private-label, and ready-to-eat categories remained more resilient, underscoring a consumer that is increasingly focused on value and prioritizing essentials.
- Gross margin expanded 40 bps to 22.8%, supported by lower shrink, improved supply chain costs, and a strong private-label mix, factors that helped support the EPS upside, alongside share repurchases, in a challenging backdrop.
- A big focus was its eCommerce business, which continued its strong performance, increasing 17% and marking six consecutive quarters of double-digit sales growth. KR also expects its e-commerce operations to become profitable in 2026 following its hybrid fulfillment overhaul.
- The revised guidance reflects a continuation of Q3 pressures, tougher Q4 comparisons, and about a 30 bps pharmacy headwind to ID sales tied to the Inflation Reduction Act, with e-commerce and private label remaining important offsets.
Briefing.com Analyst Insight
KR delivered a steady quarter, supported by solid margin expansion, strong private-label performance, and continued digital momentum, enough to extend its long streak of EPS beats despite a challenging consumer backdrop. However, the results weren't strong enough to offset the cautious tone around the consumer or the modestly trimmed expectations in its updated guidance. Identical sales slowed as SNAP timing, inflationary pressures, and reduced discretionary spending from middle income and lower income households weighed on results. Longer term, the expected profitability of e-commerce in 2026 is a meaningful positive, but near-term sentiment is dampened by softer comps and guidance, with the EPS midpoint landing below expectations and ID sales (ex-fuel) nudged lower.
Snowflake melting down as disappointing Q4 guidance clouds over strong Q3 results (SNOW)
Snowflake (SNOW) delivered a strong 3Q26 beat with product revenue up 29% yr/yr to $1.16 bln, but shares sold off sharply amid light Q4 guidance, profit-taking after a 75% YTD rally, and valuation concerns with a 1-year forward P/E north of 160x. FY26 product revenue guidance was raised to $4.446 bln (28% growth), though Q4 implies 27% growth at $1.195-$1.200 bln compared to 29% growth in Q3, and non-GAAP operating margin of 7% versus Q3's 11%.
- The Q4 slowdown is tied to discounts on large, long-term deals with lagged revenue impact, raising competition/macro worries, especially in light of peer MongoDB's (MDB) recent beat-and-raise performance.
- Remaining performance obligations (RPO) accelerated 37% to $7.88 bln with net revenue retention steady at 125%, reflecting record 615 new customers and four nine-figure deals.
- RPO acceleration and retention highlight durable expansion, with AI influencing 50% of new logos and 28% of use cases amid a $100 mln AI revenue run-rate achieved early, driven by 7,300+ weekly AI users and Snowflake Intelligence adoption by 1,200 customers.
- AI innovations like Cortex AI, Snowpark, and Snowflake Intelligence enable agentic workflows across data lifecycles, powering use cases at Fanatics (fan data unification) and TS Imagine (trading automation equivalent to 8.5 FTEs).
- SNOW's new multi-year $200 mln Anthropic partnership integrates native models with joint go-to-market to accelerate enterprise AI, while an expanded Accenture (ACN) collaboration launches a Snowflake Business Group training 5,000+ pros for faster AI value at customers like Caterpillar (CAT).
Briefing.com Analyst Insight:
SNOW's Q3 showcased AI momentum with RPO acceleration, stable retention, and ecosystem wins (SAP, Google Cloud), but Q4 guidance disappointed on growth deceleration and margin compression, contrasting with MDB's strength and fueling discounting fears. Positives include rapid AI run-rate progress, enterprise-grade reliability (e.g., outage recovery), and partnerships expanding reach, yet a lofty valuation demands proof of consumption ramps and macro resilience into FY27. New CFO Brian Robins' emphasis on efficient growth and customer enthusiasm further bolsters long-term conviction despite near-term headwinds.
Five Below Delivers Beat-And-Raise Q3 as Value Momentum Builds Into the Holidays (FIVE)
Five Below (FIVE) is trading modestly lower today despite handily beating expectations in its Q3 (Oct) report last night. Its EPS upside was the largest in five years, while revenue increased 23.1% yr/yr to $1.04 bln, marking two consecutive quarters of over $1 bln in sales. The company also raised its FY26 guidance for EPS, revenue, and comps to $5.71-5.89, $4.62-4.65 bln, and +9.4-10.1%, respectively, which were above expectations.
- Comp sales increased +14.3%, marking a continued acceleration qtr/qtr (+7.1% in Q1; +12.4% in Q2), driven by a fairly even split between transactions and ticket.
- Notably, the growth was widespread across departments, new and retained customers, and across all household income cohorts, supporting the idea that value remains paramount heading into the holidays.
- The company has been working to align more closely with trends, improve in-stocks, simplify pricing, and offer stronger value across a wider range of price points, efforts that are resonating with its core Gen Alpha, Gen Z, and Millennial customers.
- The raised guidance also reflects expectations for a strong holiday season. Management noted that traffic growth strengthened as the quarter went on and exited the period with traffic growth at the highest month-over-month level it had seen.
Briefing.com Analyst Insight
This was a standout quarter for FIVE, its strongest of the year, with accelerating comps and broad-based customer engagement. The company continues to execute well on trend alignment, marketing effectiveness, and value positioning, all of which are clearly resonating with its core demographics. Management also struck a positive tone on holiday demand, supported by improving traffic trends throughout the quarter and into early Q4. Despite the strength, the muted stock reaction likely reflects its sharp run from April lows, a nice move heading into the report, and the proximity to its 52-week high, which it surpassed before pulling back. Overall, the results reinforce that consumers are still seeking value, and FIVE appears well positioned heading into the holiday season, which is traditionally its biggest quarter of the year.
Salesforce beats Q3 expectations on Agentforce surge, but in-line Q4 EPS guide tempers rally (CRM)
Salesforce (CRM) delivered a strong beat-and-raise earnings report for 3Q26, providing shares with a much-needed pop amid a 30% year-to-date plunge for the stock. Q3 revenue reached $10.26 bln, up 9% yr/yr (8% constant currency), while non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 35.5%. Current Remaining Performance Obligations (cRPO) rose 11% to $29.4 bln, exceeding expectations due to robust bookings execution, early renewals, on-prem revenue timing, and a $200 mln FX tailwind.
- cRPO growth reflected the strongest bookings quarter in three years, driven by Agentforce momentum, multi-cloud deals (over 70% of top 100 wins included five-plus clouds), and net new average order value outpacing overall AOV for the first time since FY22.
- Strong geographic performance in North America and EMEA (led by France/UK), small/mid-market strength, and enterprise acceleration offset softer Asia Pacific and select industries like manufacturing.
- Agentforce and Data 360 (formerly Data Cloud, a real-time data unification platform for AI context via ingestion, federation, and zero-copy integration) hit nearly $1.4 bln in ARR, up 114% yr/yr, with Agentforce ARR surging 330% to about $540 mln.
- Agentforce growth stemmed from 18,500+ deals (9,500 paid, up 50% qtr/qtr), 70% qtr/qtr rise in production customers, over 50% of bookings from expansions, and massive usage (3.2 trillion tokens processed, 200 mln LLM calls in Q3).
- Q4 guidance calls for revenue of $11.13-$11.23 bln, handily beating expectations and signaling accelerating Agentforce monetization as enterprises adopt autonomous AI agents for sales, service, and employee tasks like Slackbot.
- However, EPS guidance of $3.02-$3.04 aligned with consensus, potentially capping upside in the stock as investors probe AI ROI amid pricing flexibility and human-agent augmentation.
Briefing.com Analyst Insight:
CRM posted impressive Q3 results with cRPO and bookings crushing estimates, fueled by Agentforce's breakout (330% ARR growth) and Data 360's data foundation scaling to 32 trillion records ingested. Revenue beat and Q4 raise highlight agentic AI traction, but in-line EPS tempers enthusiasm given AI spend scrutiny. With sales capacity up 23%, CRM's pipeline exploding, and Informatica bolstering the $10 bln data layer, the company eyes FY30 reacceleration, though premium valuation demands sustained organic proof beyond AI hype.
Dollar Tree: A ‘Tree-mendous’ Turnaround: Higher-Income Shoppers Fuel DLTR’s Growth Spurt (DLTR)
Dollar Tree is trading higher after posting a strong Q3 (Oct) earnings report. The company delivered a sizable EPS beat with modest revenue upside, but the real catalyst is Q4 holiday guidance, where the midpoint of EPS expectations came in well ahead of consensus. DLTR also reaffirmed its full-year same-store sales outlook of +4-6%. This quarter also marks the first full period since Dollar Tree sold its struggling Family Dollar segment on July 7, 2025, allowing investors to evaluate the core Dollar Tree banner on a standalone basis.
- Q3 same-store sales: +4.2%, topping the prior quarter-to-date guide of +3.8% — a sign that October ended strong, boosted by a standout Halloween season.
- Discretionary categories, long a drag on comps, posted their first positive yr/yr mix shift since 1Q22. Strong performers included party supplies and home décor.
- Consumables remained solid, led by household cleaning, personal care, snacks, and cookies. Seasonal trends were strong throughout the back half of the quarter.
- Dollar Tree continues to attract more value-conscious shoppers across income levels: 3 mln additional households shopped DLTR in Q3. Of these new shoppers, 60% were higher-income households ($100K+), and 30% were middle-income ($60-100K). Lower-income households are also leaning more heavily on Dollar Tree, with average spend growing more than twice as fast as other categories.
Briefing.com Analyst Insight
Dollar Tree's Q3 results underscore a compelling turnaround narrative now that the underperforming Family Dollar unit is out of the picture. The core franchise is showing healthier traffic, better mix, and more consistent pricing leverage than we've seen in several years. The sharp improvement in discretionary categories — historically DLTR's Achilles heel — is particularly meaningful because it points to improving merchandise relevance and reduced drag on comps. The customer mix shift is another notable tailwind: higher-income shoppers trading down is a trend we expect to persist in a stretched consumer environment, while lower-income households remain highly dependent on value channels. With a clean segment portfolio, a strong Halloween/seasonal performance, and bullish holiday guidance, DLTR finally feels positioned to reassert itself as a pure-play value retail winner.
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