Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded on Friday after New York Federal Reserve President John Williams suggested the central bank could cut interest rates yet again this year.
The blue-chip index gained 493.15 points, or 1.08%, to close at 46,245.41. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.88% to settle at 22,273.08, while the S&P 500 finished 0.98% higher at 6,602.99.
“I view monetary policy as being modestly restrictive, although somewhat less so than before our recent actions,” Williams said in remarks for a speech in Santiago, Chile. “Therefore, I still see room for a further adjustment in the near term to the target range for the federal funds rate to move the stance of policy closer to the range of neutral, thereby maintaining the balance between the achievement of our two goals.”
The comments by a notable Fed member like Williams signaled to investors that central bank leadership is likely to lower its benchmark overnight borrowing rate at its upcoming December meeting. This led traders to raise bets that the Fed would, in fact, cut next month for the third time in 2025.
Fed funds futures are currently pricing in a more than 70% chance of a quarter percentage point cut, a spike from the less than 40% likelihood priced in the day before, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Stocks that could benefit the most from lower rates, which may spur consumer spending, led the market comeback. These included Home Depot, Starbucks and McDonald’s. Investors hope easier monetary policy can revive a sluggish economy and justify historically high tech-stock valuations.
“We think there definitely should be a cut,” Jay Hatfield, Infrastructure Capital Advisors founder and CEO, said in an interview with CNBC. “It’s going to depend on the next … employment report. It would have to be pretty weak, I think, to convince people to cut.”
Wall Street is coming off a brutal market reversal in the last session. The Dow at one point on Thursday rose more than 700 points as investors cheered a blockbuster Nvidia fiscal third-quarter earnings report. The benchmark, along with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, ended the day sharply lower as the Nvidia rally fizzled and worries grew that the Fed would stand pat in December on rates. The AI darling finished with a more than 3% decline.
Even with Friday’s moves, the three major averages are still headed for big losses this week. The S&P 500 is down almost 2% week to date, as is the 30-stock Dow. The Nasdaq has shed 2.7%.
When speaking about the recent pressure, Hatfield believes that “this is a normal, seasonal, post-earnings valuation pullback,” adding that “the bubbles portion of the market [is] getting annihilated.”
That includes bitcoin, which dropped more than 2% Friday, putting its week-to-date losses at more than 10%. The cryptocurrency has fallen to levels not seen since April as investors have pulled back on their risk-taking in the market.
“The only real question is, ‘Where do we bottom out at?'” Hatfield said about the broader market.
Citi says Zeta Global is a buy
AI marketing technology company Zeta Global has standout products compared to competitors, says Citi.
The bank initiated coverage for the stock with a buy rating and set its price target at $26. This suggests a nearly 60% increase from Thursday’s close.
Analyst Ygai Arounian noted the company’s marketing and advertising technology capabilities, reaching various channels and social platforms including CTV, video, email and Meta.
“Zeta’s marketing platform combines its data cloud, marketing automation software, and media activation capabilities in one unified platform,” Arounian wrote. “This positions Zeta well against larger legacy Martech providers as its platform allows marketers to consolidate the number of vendors and solutions needed for their marketing needs.”
Shares rose more than 5% after Citi’s initiation.
— Itzel Franco
ITB on track for best day since July
The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF is on pace for its best day in four months.
ITB shares were last up almost 6%, tracking for its best performance since July 22, when the fund gained 7.88%.
Homebuilder stocks are rising on investors’ optimism that the Federal Reserve will cut rates again at its December meeting. Fed funds futures traders are pricing in a roughly 70% chance that the Central Bank will slash rates, up from 39% a day ago, the CME’s FedWatch tool shows.
— Liz Napolitano
Nvidia jumps after report says White House mulls selling H200 Nvidia chips to China
“There are several local Chinese companies that produce chips to compete with Nvidia,” said Brady Wang, associate director at Counterpoint Research.
Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Nvidia shares turned around and traded more than 1% higher after Bloomberg News reported, citing sources, that the Trump administration was mulling the sale of H200 AI chips to China. The report said President Donald Trump held talks internally about possible shipments in recent days, though it added that a decision had not been made.
NVDA intraday
— Fred Imbert
Raymond James sees big upside ahead for Nvidia, AMD
Raymond James has resumed coverage of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, rating them a strong buy and outperform, respectively.
The firm acknowledged the rich valuations and risk in the space, but said the names are high-quality compounders with long-term growth rates above their cost of capital.
Nvidia is the AI leader, Simon Leopold said in a note Thursday.
“NVIDIA retains significant competitive moats with an extensive and mature software stack resulting from over a decade head start, a strong community supported by the leading developers, and its full-stack systems approach and platform cadence,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, AMD is in the best position to compete with Nvidia in the merchant GPU market, Leopold said. He expects continued momentum in accelerators and AI rack systems, as well as continued server and PC share gains.
He has a $272 price target on Nvidia, implying nearly 51% upside from Thursday’s close. His $377 price target on AMD suggests 83% upside ahead.
— Michelle Fox
Alphabet shares are outperforming the rest of its ‘Mag 7’ peers by a wide margin this week
Signage at the Google Midlothian Data Center in Midlothian, Texas, US, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.
Jonathan Johnson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google parent Alphabet is the best performer of the “Magnificent Seven” on Friday — and also for the week. Shares rose 2% on Friday, putting its week to date gains at roughly 7%. All six other members are in the red on the week.
Investor interest in Alphabet has surged, driven by enthusiasm for its AI products and its custom-built Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, which are increasingly seen as strong competitors to Nvidia’s graphics processing units, or GPUs. Alphabet shares rallied on Wednesday after Google’s new Gemini 3 AI model sparked investor optimism. D.A. Davidson analysts called the new model “the current state-of-the-art” based on preliminary testing and how it scored against AI benchmarks.
Alphabet stock, once considered an AI laggard, now boasts the strongest year to date performance of its Mag 7 peers, with a 56% gain. Nvidia comes in second place, with gains of roughly 33% this year.
— Pia Singh
Small caps pop
Small-cap stocks roared back on Friday as the broader market rebounded.
The Russell 2000 climbed 2.8% in midday trading. By comparison, the S&P 500 added 1.3%.
Russell 2000 vs. S&P 500, 1-day
With Friday’s again, the Russell 2000 has narrowed its week-to-date loss below 1%.
— Alex Harring
Barclays: AI rally is tempered by worries that AI capex may not pay off down the road
Nvidia’s blockbuster third-quarter results have failed to ease fears of an AI bubble, particularly as concerns of AI’s return on investment remain top-of-mind for investors, according to Barclays.
“The initial relief rally in risk assets following another impressive earnings delivery was short lived,” Barclays strategist Emmanuel Cau wrote in Friday note, referring to Thursday’s stunning reversal in tech stocks that drove major U.S. stock indexes lower.
“Meeting many of our clients this week, it is indeed clear that monetization of this extraordinary capex boom, along with valuation, cash flow/leverage, power demand, and circular funding have become key concerns,” Cau continued. “No one doubts the capex boom will carry on, but more worry it may not pay-off down the road. This is what the recent decoupling between rising capex announcements by hyperscalers and the drop in their share prices seems to suggest.”
Cau added that it is likely the market is moving towards a more “mature phase” of the AI trade, which could bring greater investor scrutiny. Growing discernment among AI stocks is already evident in how the ‘Magnificent 7’ group is trading, as Alphabet remains the only stock in the green this week while stocks such as Microsoft and Amazon have each declined about 7%. Nvidia is down 5.5% week to date.
— Pia Singh
Key consumer sentiment reading in line with expectations as inflation fears subside
People shop at a discount store in Manhattan on Nov. 7, 2025, in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The consumer outlook for economic conditions held at low levels into later November but improved a bit after the government shutdown ended, according to a survey Friday from the University of Michigan.
The school’s headline consumer sentiment index posted a reading of 51.0, exactly in line with market expectations and a bit better than the 50.3 reading for the mid-month gauge. The reading represented a monthly drop 4.9% and a 29% slide from November 2024.
“After the federal shutdown ended, sentiment lifted slightly from its mid-month reading. However, consumers remain frustrated about the persistence of high prices and weakening incomes,” survey Director Joanne Hsu said.
Inflation readings also improved. The one-year outlook edged lower to 4.5% while the five-year view tumbled to 3.4%, a half percentage point drop from October. Both readings also were lower than the mid-month levels.
— Jeff Cox
The $1 trillion club isn’t just for tech giants anymore
Eli Lilly shares year to date
Eli Lilly‘s market cap briefly crossed $1 trillion in value on Friday, becoming the first drugmaker to earn this distinction. Until now the exclusive club was dominated by tech giants.
The diabetes and obesity drugmaker had flirted with the trillion-dollar mark in September of 2024 before hitting a few stumbling blocks as it tried to ramp up manufacturing capacity of its blockbuster drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Now on firmer footing, Lilly shares have outpaced the S&P 500 year to date, with a nearly 36% gain.
—Christina Cheddar Berk
Stocks open higher Friday
A Trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York on November 21, 2025.
Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images
Stocks began Friday’s session in positive territory, reversing course from Thursday’s sell-off.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were each 0.5% higher after the opening bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose 220 points, or 0.5%.
— Sean Conlon
Riot Platforms, Elastic, Albemarle among the stocks making premarket moves
Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:
- Bitcoin stocks — Stocks linked to the world’s oldest cryptocurrency were in the red as bitcoin plunged closer to $80,000 as investors fled risk assets. Digital asset mining companies American Bitcoin and Riot Platforms fell 2.4%, while Bitcoin treasury Strategy shed 2%. Galaxy Digital was down 2.2%.
- Elastic — The data analytics company tumbled nearly 13% after reporting fiscal second-quarter results that saw a deceleration in cloud growth. Elastic’s adjusted earnings and revenue topped Wall Street’s expectations.
- Albemarle — A Bloomberg report revealed that lithium miner has come up with a preliminary plan to resume operations at its Jianxiawo mine by early December. Ablemarle fell nearly 5%.
Read the complete list here.
— Liz Napolitano
Bitcoin posts fresh low
Romain Costaseca | Afp | Getty Images
Bitcoin on Friday had reached its lowest level since April 11, when bitcoin traded as low as 78,926.67.
It was last down more than 3%. Week to date, the cryptocurrency is down nearly 12%.
Bitcoin, 1-day
— Gina Francolla, Sean Conlon
New York Fed President Williams sees likelihood for more rate cuts
New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams speaks to Economic Club of New York, in New York City, U.S., May 30, 2024.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said Friday he expects the central bank has more room to lower interest rates.
The influential policymaker said for a speech in Chile that he views the threats to the labor market as greater than those to inflation, echoing a narrative among more dovish members of the Federal Open Market Committee.
“I view monetary policy as being modestly restrictive, although somewhat less so than before our recent actions,” he said. “Therefore, I still see room for a further adjustment in the near term to the target range for the federal funds rate to move the stance of policy closer to the range of neutral, thereby maintaining the balance between the achievement of our two goals.”
— Jeff Cox
Oil declines on Trump’s Ukraine peace plan
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
Alexander Drago | Reuters
Oil prices extended declines and energy stocks fell sharply on Friday morning as U.S. President Donald Trump pushed for a peace deal to end the long-running Russia-Ukraine war.
International benchmark Brent crude futures with January expiry slipped 1.6% to $62.38 per barrel at 11:47 a.m. London time (6:47 a.m. ET), after dipping 0.2% in the previous session. The contract is down more 16% so far this year.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with January expiry were last seen 2% lower at $57.85, after closing Thursday off 0.5%. Read more.
Brent, 1-day
— Sam Meredith
Nvidia under pressure again
Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Nvidia shares fell more than 1% in the premarket, a day after the AI giant saw a major downward reversal despite the company posting better-than-expected quarterly results.
— Fred Imbert
More than 75% of all NYSE stocks fell Thursday in huge washout
A television broadcasts crypto market news at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Declining stocks outpaced advancing issues 2,157 to 621 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, accounting for almost 76% of all issues traded, according to data compiled by FactSet. Share volume that was lower in price accounted for nearly 81% of the total traded versus a little more than 18% of advancing volume.
New NYSE 52-week lows swamped new highs, 174 to 50.
Nasdaq showed the same, with declining stocks outweighing advancers 3,557 to 1,144, accounting for almost 73% of all stocks traded. Declining volume was nearly 82% of the day’s total against less than 17% advancing volume.
New 52-week lows on Nasdaq came to 513 against just 125 new highs.
— Scott Schnipper
Intuit, Gap and Ross Stores are among the stocks moving Thursday evening
Shoppers walk past a GAP fashion retail store on Oxford Street on October 30, 2025 in London, United Kingdom.
John Keeble | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading:
- Intuit — Intuit shares jumped nearly 4% on the back of strong first-quarter results. The software company earned $3.34 per share, on an adjusted basis, while analysts polled by FactSet expected $3.09 per share. Revenue came out at $3.89 billion for the period, exceeding the $3.76 billion estimate.
- Gap — Shares of the clothing retailer rose almost 5% after Gap’s company-wide third-quarter same-store sales rose 5% — flying past Wall Street’s expectations. The retailer, which beat on top and bottom lines, said sales were helped by its viral “Better in Denim” campaign with Katseye. Gap Chief Executive Richard Dickson told CNBC that it hasn’t needed to discount as often to sell products.
- Ross Stores — The off-price retailer gained more than 2% in extended trading after it beat Wall Street’s expectations. Ross Stores earned $1.58 per share on revenue of $5.60 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG expected the retailer would earn $1.41 per share on revenue of $5.42 billion. The company’s chief executive officer said that Ross has seen an “excellent back-to-school season with strong trends that continued through the balance of the quarter.”
For the full list, read here.
— Pia Singh
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