3 months ago
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By Stan Choe
December 2, 2025 — 5.22am
US stocks are giving back some of last week’s rally on Monday as bitcoin falls again.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent and was on track to break a five-day winning streak. The Dow Jones was down 225 points, or 0.4 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4 per cent lower.
Options trader Phil Fracassini works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.Credit: AP
The Australian sharemarket is set to rise, with futures pointing to a gain of 36 points, or 0.4 per cent, at the open. The ASX lost 0.6 per cent on Monday in a session that was marred by an outage that affected trading in about 50 stocks. The Australian dollar was trading at US65.51¢ at 5.18am AEDT.
Last week’s rally was largely due to rising hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate next week to help shore up the slowing job market. Such hopes are still high, with traders betting on a nearly 88 per cent chance the Fed will cut at its next meeting, according to data from CME Group.
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But yields for longer-term Treasurys nevertheless rose in the bond market Monday. It was part of a worldwide climb for yields after the head of the Bank of Japan hinted at a possible hike to interest rates there.
When bonds are paying higher yields, they can attract investors who otherwise would buy stocks or cryptocurrencies. Higher yields undercut prices for all kinds of investments, particularly those seen as the most expensive.
Bitcoin, which was soaring around $US125,000 in October, dropped below $US86,000. That’s down more roughly 7 per cent from a day earlier.
That in turn sent stocks lower across the crypto industry. Coinbase Global sank 5.8 per cent, and Robinhood Markets fell 5.5 per cent, for example.
Strategy, the company that used to be known as MicroStrategy and now raises money just to buy bitcoin, lost 10.9 per cent. It said that it raised a fund of $US1.44 billion ($2.1 billion) in US dollars, not in bitcoin, by selling stock to help pay for its dividends on preferred shares and interest on its debt.
On the winning side of Wall Street was Synposys, which rose 3.5 per cent. It said Nvidia is investing $US2 billion in its stock as part of an expanded partnership. Nvidia, which has become Wall Street’s most influential stock, swung from an early loss to a gain of 1.2 per cent.
The market, meanwhile, had a mixed reaction to what seems like a strong start for the holiday shopping season. Consumer spending during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday retailing bonanza was expected to exceed expectations, despite uncertainty over the outlook for the US economy.
Ross Stores rose 1 per cent, and Williams-Sonoma climbed 1.4 per cent. But Best Buy fell 1.4 per cent.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid sharp moves.
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France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.2 per cent, dragged down in part by a 5.7 per cent loss for Airbus.
The European aerospace giant said Monday that most of its fleet of 6,000 A320 passenger jets have received an update after a weekend software glitch that could have affected flight controls. Travelers faced minor disruptions heading into the weekend as airlines around the world scrambled to push the software updates out after Airbus warned of the problem Friday, one of the busiest travel days of the year.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.9 per cent on worries about the possibility of higher interest rates. Japan’s benchmark interest rate has remained near zero for years in hopes of juicing the economy. Now inflation is holding above the Bank of Japan’s target of about 2 per cent.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.09 per cent from 4.02 per cent Friday.
It briefly slowed its ascent in the morning after a report showed activity for US manufacturers shrank by more last month than economists expected. The weaker-than-expected report could give the Fed further leeway to cut interest rates.
Jobs are under pressure at manufacturers, and the majority told the Institute for Supply Management’s survey that they’re still focused more on managing headcount than on hiring. Several manufacturers also said tariffs are continuing to make things complicated.
“Conditions are more trying than during the coronavirus pandemic in terms of supply chain uncertainty,” one manufacturer told the ISM.
AP
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