News Recap • Week 49 2025

Check the news below and make sure to visit my latest Market Recap as well.

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Macro

• Mon The Bank of Japan is “weighing the pros and cons” of a rate hike later this month, according to Governor Kazuo Ueda. Based on his statement, economists now see it as highly likely that the BoJ will raise its leading interest rate from the current 0.75% level. Japanese bond yields spiked on the news with the 2-year jumping 5.37% to above 1% for the first time since 2008 while the 30-year reached a new all-time high around 3.4%. The Nikkei 225 dropped almost 2% on Monday but had fully recovered its losses by Thursday. (Reuters)
• Mon China’s manufacturing PMI dipped into contraction territory with a 49.9 reading in November, down from 50.6 in October and below the 50.5 estimate. (CNBC)
• Mon The Federal Reserve officially ended its quantitative tightening after removing around $2.4 trillion from the financial system since the tightening cycle began in June 2022. (Yahoo Finance)
• Tue The OECD said on Tuesday that global growth is holding up better than expected with AI investments offset US tariffs. The OECD now sees economic growth come in at 3.2% in 2025 and 2.9% in 2026. (Reuters)
• Tue Michael and Susan Dell pledged to donate $6.25 billion to fund ‘Trump Accounts’ for 25 million American kids. (CNBC)
• Wed The US labor market slowed down significantly in November as the latest ADP report showed private companies cut 32,000 jobs. That was far below the forecast for 40,000 new jobs created and the October growth of 47,000. Interestingly, businesses with more than 50 employees actually saw a net gain of 90,000 workers while smaller business lost 120,000. (CNBC)
• Thu A new report showed US layoffs have surpassed 1.1 million in 2025, the most since 2020. (CNBC)
• Thu Weekly jobless claims in the US fell 27,000 to 191,000, well below the 220,000 forecast and the lowest level in three years. This stood out as a positive data point for the US labor market this week. (Reuters)
• Fri The delayed PCE report from September showed an annual core inflation rate of 2.8%, slightly below the prior month’s 2.9% which had also been the forecast for September. The headline number also came in at 2.8%, up from 2.7% in August but in line with expectations. (CNBC)
• Fri The Reserve Bank of India cut its policy rate from 5.5% to 5.25% as expected, citing “weakness in some key economic areas” and low inflation. The RBI in October lowered its inflation outlook for 2025 from 3.1% to 2.6%, the lower end of its 4% target +/- 2%. (CNBC)
• Fri Eurozone GDP growth for the third quarter was revised up from 0.2% to 0.3%, a notable improvements from the previous quarter’s 0.1% expansion. (Trading Economics)

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Other

• Tue AI startup Anthropic is reportedly preparing to go public in what could be one of the largest IPOs ever. (CNBC)
• Tue Prediction market platform Kalshi announced a $1 billion Series E funding round at a $11 billion valuation. (Kalshi)
• Wed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a “code red” memo to employees, instilling urgency and shifting resources toward improving ChatGPT in an attempt to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive environment. (Yahoo Finance)
• Thu Meta is reportedly preparing to cut around 30% of its metaverse budget as it continues to invest heavily in AI. Investors seemed to like the direction, sending shares up by 3.43% on Thursday. (Reuters)
• Fri Netflix announced on Friday that it has reached a deal to buy Warner Bros. film and streaming assets for around $72 billion in cash and stock. Netflix has been bidding against Paramount Skydance and Comcast for a while and some investors seem concerned about the takeover. Netflix shares have been trending down for six months and have now lost 25% of their value after another drop on Friday. (CNBC)
• Fri SpaceX is reportedly beginning a secondary share sale that will value the company at $800 billion and make it the most valuable private company in the world. The Wall Street Journal also reported that SpaceX may seek to go public as early as next year. (CNBC)

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Earnings

• Wed Salesforce reported revenue slightly below forecast but a solid beat on earnings. The company’s guidance also topped estimates. The stock jumped 3.66% on Thursday after the report and another 5.3% on Friday. However, it is still down more than 22% for the year. (CNBC)
• Thu Ulta Beauty delivered a strong beat on both the top and bottom lines while also hiking its guidance for the second quarter in a row. Shares surged 12.65% on Friday after the report and closed at a new all-time high. (CNBC)