Wall Street concluded a volatile November with a five-day rally, driven by hopes for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut. While major tech stocks like Nvidia and Oracle saw significant losses, Alphabet surged on AI news, and investors shifted funds to pharma and travel sectors.
Wall Street wrapped up a volatile November with a five-day winning streak, as the S&P 500 gained 0.5% on Friday, closing the month up 0.1%. The Dow rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq gained 0.7% on Friday, though the latter ended November down 1.5% due to significant losses in some major tech stocks. Mid-month saw stocks decline over concerns that AI-boosted companies like Nvidia had become overvalued, with Nvidia, Oracle, and Palantir experiencing double-digit monthly losses. Conversely, Alphabet surged nearly 14% on excitement for its Gemini AI model. The market's turnaround was primarily fueled by strong expectations (nearly 87% probability) of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut in December, despite the Fed facing a complex decision balancing a slowing job market and rising inflation. Amid tech volatility, investors reallocated funds, leading to over 20% monthly gains for pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Merck, and strong performances from travel firms such as Marriott and Expedia. Other notable events included mixed Black Friday retail results, a technical outage at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange affecting futures trading, slightly rising Treasury yields, and varied performances across European and Asian markets.
