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Good morning.
The Fed cut rates, and markets popped.
Stocks rallied on Wednesday after the central bank trimmed rates by 25 basis points, even as a rare three dissenters revealed growing tension inside the FOMC.
Also:
Oracle missed on earnings and tanked an entire 13%
Cisco finally broke its dot-com share price record after 25 years
Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos want to build data centers in space
Let’s get into it.
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📰 Market Headlines
Stocks rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points (BPS), though the decision revealed a growing divide within the central bank.
The Dow added 1%, the S&P 500 rose 0.7%, and the small-cap Russell 2000 notched a fresh all-time high.
The Fed's decision drew unusual dissents from both sides in a 6-3 vote. Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmid and Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee wanted to keep rates steady, while Fed governor Stephen Miran pushed for a bigger 50 BPS cut. This marks the first time since 2019 that three Fed officials voted against a policy action. Officials project only one more rate cut for 2026.
The Fed also announced it will buy $40 billion of Treasury bills over the next 30 days in an attempt to stabilize liquidity. It will continue with monthly purchases (tapering off in size) from there.
Fed Chair Powell essentially said the Fed can’t fix the issues that the housing market is facing; it doesn’t “really have the tools to address a secular housing shortage, structural housing shortage,” he explained.
Oracle (ORCL) fell short of earnings expectations, and the stock has dropped 13% since markets closed yesterday (even though the company beat revenue expectations). ORCL led many other tech giants into the red during after-hours trading, leaving Nvidia (NVDA) down 1.4%, Micron Tech (MU) down 1.2%, and CoreWeave (CRWV) down 4.2%.
Carvana extended its record 12-day streak ahead of its S&P 500 entry. The online used-car dealer closed 2.5% higher at an all-time high of $467.67, adding over $33 billion to its market cap since the rally began. The stock has climbed 50% from its Nov. 21 close. Carvana will officially join the S&P 500 on Dec. 22, along with CRH and Comfort Systems USA.
Both Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos want to build AI data centers in space. Bezos’s Blue Origin has been reportedly working on orbital data centers for a year already, and Musk’s SpaceX plans to add AI compute payloads to a future version of its Starlink satellites, according to Yahoo Finance.
Retail investors are beating the market. By dollar-cost averaging into ETFs, retail traders earned an average return of 23% this year, which was far above the S&P 500’s return of 12% and the NASDAQ 100’s return of 13%.
Eli Lilly (LLY) reported that its new weight loss drug (retatrutide) not only helped people shed pounds, but also reduced knee arthritis pain, according to CNBC. LLY is up 1.4% pre-market on the news. Retatrutide works by imitating 3 different hormones (GLP-1, GIP and glucagon), earning it the nickname “triple G.”
Cisco finally topped its dot-com record price after more than 25 years. Shares rose to $80.25 on Wednesday, breaking through the March 27, 2000, high that marked the peak of the tech bubble. The networking giant has gained more than 800% since bottoming out in 2002, though its market cap remains 40% below its peak dot-com level.
😱 Fear & Greed Index
🤖 AI/Future/Tech News
A Virginia startup is trying to claim X’s “Twitter” and “tweet” trademarks in order to start a new social media platform… and call it Twitter.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said to Jimmy Fallon that he “cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT.” View here.
AI startup Tavus reported users are chatting with its virtual Santa for hours per day.
🪙 Crypto
The 1.8 million-member American Federation of Teachers urged the Senate to kill a major crypto bill, citing "profound risks" to pensions.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins signaled that traditional stock market rules may not fit tokenized securities, hinting at major regulatory changes.
Coinbase is going to let users trade all Solana tokens without requiring them to be listed on Coinbase itself.
Do you like to trade Bitcoin outside of typical stock market hours? Then this new BTC ETF is for you.
Bitcoin rose all the way to $93,500 in response to the rate cut yesterday, but has now fallen back to $90,000 (wiping out $250 million in levered positions).
🚨Trending on Reddit
GameStop chatter spiked as Redditors dissected its Q3 earnings beat and fourfold profit surge. The 0% convertible notes and Bitcoin treasury move sparked debate over whether GME is shifting from retailer to crypto hybrid.
Microsoft mentions climbed as Redditors discussed its $17B India investment and AI expansion plans. Sentiment split between long-term optimism and frustration over the stock’s sluggish stretch.
📊 IPOs and Earnings
Synopsys posted a 38% surge in Q4 revenue to $2.25 billion, beating estimates on strong design automation gains; shares popped 5.6% in post-market trading.
Nordson beat Q4 earnings estimates with adjusted EPS of $3.03, helped by a 10% sales jump in its Medical and Fluid Solutions segment; shares climbed 4% after hours.
Planet Labs announced strong Q3 results after the bell, rocketing its stock up more than 13% in after-hours trading.
❓Market Trivia Corner
🎤️ What you said last time
🧠 The Missing (Market) Links
Americans turned to GoFundMe at record levels to help pay their bills. Essential expense fundraising on the platform jumped 20% this year.
A new study found that over 75% of U.S. homes are unaffordable for the typical family, which now needs an income of $113,000 to buy a median-priced house.
A 28-year-old bought a $6,000 Airstream and turned it into a mobile coffee shop that brought in over $500,000 in its first year.
The FAFSA added a "lower earnings" flag to warn students about colleges where graduates don't out-earn workers with only a high school diploma.
"Bookstore tourism" is surging. Google Trends revealed the most popular indie bookstores in America for 2025.
📜 Quote of the Day
I’m not better than the next trader, just quicker at admitting my mistakes and moving on to the next opportunity.”
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Cheers,
Brandon & Blake of Invested Inc
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