Regent Street in London celebrates the Christmas season on November 13, 2025 in London, England.
Ben Montgomery | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
December tends to sneak up on us, asking the perennial question: where did the year go? The final month often seems like both a finish line and a mirror, reflecting the year’s highs, lows, and everything between.
Markets, meanwhile, are hoping for an early Christmas gift from the U.S. Federal Reserve as policymakers gather for their final meeting of the year next week.
Traders are largely expecting a 25-basis-point cut according to the CME Fedwatch tool, a move they hope will kickstart the “Santa Claus rally” that often nudges markets higher into the year-end.
However, the forecast isn’t entirely clear skies for Santa’s sleigh.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasingly bellicose rhetoric has raised the spectre of possible military action in Venezuela, while recent volatility over the AI theme has investors wondering whether uncertainty will build, or in a worst-case scenario, give way to a bubble that finally pops.
If time flies, then 2025 moved at supersonic speed, and December is its landing strip. So please fasten your seat belts, stow your tray tables, and put your seats in the upright position.
Happy December!
What you need to know today
China factory activity still in contraction. The country’s factory activity edged higher in November but remained stuck in contraction for the eighth consecutive month. Manufacturing PMI rose to 49.2, up 0.2 points from October, and in line with economists’ expectations in a Reuters poll.
India GDP accelerates. The Indian economy grew faster than expected for the quarter ending September, expanding 8.2% year on year. The sharp improvement in the GDP growth rate was due to a pick-up in manufacturing and construction activity and in domestic consumption.
Wingtech-Nexperia war of words heats up. Dutch chipmaker Nexperia has publicly called on its China unit to help restore supply chain operations, warning in an open letter that customers across industries are reporting “imminent production outages.”
Markets climb in shortened Thanksgiving session. All three U.S. indexes gained in a shortened Friday session, with the Nasdaq Composite scoring its fifth straight day of gains and rising 0.65%. The S&P 500 gained 0.54% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average grew 0.61%.
[PRO] A bright outlook for silver. Buzz around gold has rippled through markets this year — but silver has been quietly going along for the ride, culminating in a new record high that analysts say could double in the coming years.
And finally…
An American Airlines plane is parked at a gate at the LaGuardia Airport in New York City, U.S., Nov. 18, 2025.
Kylie Cooper | Reuters
Airbus A320 recall disrupts global travel after glitch linked to solar flares
Thousands of travelers worldwide were stranded after Airbus ordered immediate software fixes for 6,000 A320-series aircraft, a move that affected more than half of the narrow-body fleet and forced airlines to ground jets during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.
The directive — among the largest in the 55-year history of Airbus — quickly spilled into U.S. holiday travel and stretched to Australia. The disruption, linked to solar flares, hit especially hard in Asia, where the single-aisle A320 family anchors short-haul networks.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency said in a directive on Friday that a JetBlue flight on Oct. 30 experienced an “uncommanded and limited pitch down event.”
— Victor Loh