1. The FED meeting will determine the Santa rally.

Stocks have erased their November losses as positive year-end seasonality plays out. Wagers on a rate cut at Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting have shifted from unlikely to more than 90% in a matter of weeks, with further easing expected in 2026.

“The Fed meeting on Dec. 10 will likely determine the future and shape of any ‘Santa rally,’ and the division currently agitating its decision-making committee is cause for concern,” says Florian Ielpo, head of macro research at Lombard Odier Investment Managers.

Upbeat sentiment could fade should the Fed deliver a “dovish cut,” according to Bank of America strategists led by Michael Hartnett. Markets typically react negatively when rate cuts are driven by a weakening economy.

2. Wall Street veteran Ed Yardeni advises investors to scale back exposure to the Magnificent Seven stocks.

With this recommendation, he has officially ended his fifteen-year recommendation to overweight mega-cap technology.

Yardeni's core argument is that the Magnificent Seven's exceptional profit margins are now attracting substantial new competition from both rival tech giants and non-traditional sectors… "every company is evolving into a technology company." 

But it wasn’t all bad news. Yardeni also wrote a note to clients Monday that the “Roaring 2020s” will continue, and posted an S&P 500 target of 7,700 by the end of next year.

3. Samsung could become a humanoid industry enabler.

The converging advancements in robotics and AI are creating transformative opportunities for Samsung.

This opportunity goes beyond a firm producing its own line of humanoid robots, and Samsung might focus on providing the core AI vision technology that other humanoid manufacturers can integrate into their creations. This approach could allow Samsung to become a key enabler in the humanoid ecosystem. The situation would be similar to how it supplies components like OLED displays, autonomous chips and memory chips to other tech companies currently.

Below: Samsung's humanoid future cost estimates

4. Hardware is back.

The robots are coming and the major tech companies will need to build out their industrial capacities.

5. Global EV tracker.

Global EV sales in October were up 29% y/y at 1.4million with China penetration reaching 33%.

Beijing is selling clean energy to the world while Washington is pushing oil and gas.

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