CLOSING BELL
Old Man's Still Kicking
The market finished Friday slightly down, though the tech recovered some ground on the day after a quick pullback. Stock prices are back below where they started in November for the most part, about six months of green reaching a plateau for the weekend.
Investor eyes, seeing the government doors open but no government data to follow, are anxiously looking toward the December FOMC meeting. Futures and bets are now 50/50 that the Fed will cut rates, and an increasing number of voting members are voicing their concerns. Employment and Real Earnings are coming Thursday and Friday next week, the BLS said Friday, dusting off their keyboards finally.
President Trump plans to cut back tariffs on specific nations, the White House said Friday, because goods like beef, bananas, and coffee are becoming a luxury when, in February, they were dime a dozen. Turns out we can’t make up for coffee bean plantations on U.S. soil that easily.
The Admin also reached a deal with Sweden for a 15% tariff rate, hoping to cement a “pay us $200B for a tariff reduction” precedent with other nations. $DJT ( ▼ 7.98% ) was falling and trending #1 on Stocktwits, and I’ll let you guess why.
Oh, and Buffett’s last picks as the man in charge also already came out with a bang for his buck.
Today’s RIP: Buffett Bets on Goog, FOMC 50/50, and trending.
5 of 11 sectors closed green. Energy $XLE ( ▲ 1.7% ) lead and financials $XLF ( ▼ 1.0% )lagged.
TRENDING STOCKS
Trending Stocks Friday
Google’s $GOOG ( ▼ 0.77% ) said right after the bell it would invest $40B in Texas Data centers. They already have a $2.7B investment focused in Dallas, according to Bloomberg.
The payout for the panhandle includes a new solar and battery plant in Haskell County.
“This investment will create thousands of jobs, provide skills training to college students and electrical apprentices, and accelerate energy affordability initiatives throughout Texas,” Alphabet Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said.
The news follows an Anthropic plan to spend $50B across the U.S., in Texas and NY.
Stubhub $STUB ( ▼ 20.99% ) continued to fall after the company refused to update guidance and pulled in a startling net loss, now down to half its IPO price from just a couple of months ago.
$RCAT ( ▼ 7.49% ) Red Cat, A drone company, was down, slashing its revenue outlook for the year. It took longer than it thought to finalize a $35M contract with the Army the firm said. Despite the delays, this year, RedCat executives expressed confidence about securing several more contracts in the near future.
The drone maker slashed its annual revenue forecast to $34.5 million to $37.5 million, down from a previous forecast of $80 million to $120 million. The company also projected fourth-quarter revenue to be between $20 million and $23 million, all below estimates.
Speaking of drones, $ONDS ( ▲ 9.45% )climbed at getting an upgrade boost from analysts at Oppenheimer, with a new $12 price target. The company said Thursday it lost three cents a share in its Q3, but pulled in six times the revenue, $10M in the quarter. Ondas makes drone solutions and networking infrastructure, including an “Optimus” system it calls a ‘drone all in one box’ for public safety and industrial scanning. I wonder if Elon knows they use that name?
MACRO NEWS
Buffett Made These Moves Before Stepping Down
It’s that wonderful time of year again: 13F filings!
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed its Q3 portfolio moves in Friday’s 13F filing, marking its 12th straight quarter as a net seller of stocks. The disclosure comes as Buffett prepares to hand the reins to Greg Abel at year-end. The moves:
Alphabet $GOOGL ( ▼ 0.78% ):Berkshire added a new stake, scooping up ~25.5M shares valued at $4.34B. Alphabet just posted a 16% revenue surge and is investing heavily in AI, and that stake was worth $5B Friday.
Apple $AAPL ( ▼ 0.2% ) : Trimmed again, down to 238.2M shares from 280M, marking the second straight quarter of reductions.
Bank of America $BAC ( ▼ 0.49% ) : Cut to 568.1M shares from 605.3M.
D.R. Horton $DHI ( ▼ 0.68% ) : Fully exited its position.
Verisign : Reduced to 8.99M shares from 13.3M.
Chubb : Increased to 31.3M shares from 27.0M.
Sirius XM: Boosted to 124.8M shares from 119.8M.
Domino’s Pizza : Raised to 2.98M shares from 2.63M.
Did not change positions in Amazon $AMZN ( ▼ 1.22% ) & UnitedHealth $UNH ( ▼ 3.21% )
Berkshire sold $12.5B in equities and bought $6.4B. With this report, investors now look to Abel’s leadership, though Buffett promised to keep writing his annual Thanksgiving letters.
MACRO NEWS
Fed Watch: December Cut in Doubt
After two straight quarter-point reductions, Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned last month that another cut was far from a “foregone conclusion.” Now, the CME looks like a coin flip as futures’ price in a big fat ‘I donno’ for the final rate decision this year.
This week, regional Fed presidents echoed that caution, signaling policy may stay tight into year-end.
The hawks circle:
Jeff Schmid of the Kansas City Fed spoke at the Energy and the Economy conference in Denver Friday, where he argued against another cut, citing inflation risks and structural labor shifts.
Lorie Logan of the Dallas Fed, also at the Denver conference, reiterated it would be “difficult” to support easing in December.
Susan Collins of the Boston Fed delivered remarks at the Regional and Community Bankers ConferenceWednesday, saying she needs clearer labor market deterioration before backing more cuts.
Neel Kashkari of the Minneapolis Fed, in a Bloomberg interview on Thursday, admitted he didn’t support the last cut and remains undecided.
Beth Hammack of the Cleveland Fed called for policy to stay “somewhat restrictive,” speaking at the Pittsburgh Economic Club.
Alberto Musalem of the St. Louis Fed urged caution, noting inflation is still above target.
Fed Governor Michael Barr focused on AI and innovation in his remarks, sidestepping rate policy. He’s slated to speak again next week on Nov. 21 in Washington.
The takeaway: Hawkish commentary has cooled market expectations for a December cut. CME Fedwatch shows more of a coin flip for the Dec. 10th meeting.
POPS & DROPS
Top Stocks News Stories
Warner Bros rose: takeover bids from Comcast, Netflix, and Paramount.
Jim Cramer warned Oracle and OpenAI face harsh as momentum fades.
Dan Ives said tech pullback will be short-lived, calling it a mini panic.
Standard Lithium rose 9% after securing major US government backing.
JD.com fell after weak earnings and cautious consumer spending outlook.
Scholar Rock climbed 24% targeting 2026 muscle atrophy therapy approval.
Crypto Is Tanking, Saylor Posting At Peak
Saylor’s AI image, of not going down with the ship
Bitcoin was still plummeting, falling 25% since its October high of $126,199. Crypto in general was down, pulling down names like $MSTR ( ▼ 4.22% ) Strategy. $BMNR ( ▼ 5.93% ) an Eth treasury company that flew 300%+ this year, is still in the green for ‘25, but is on its way to the red at -25% in November.
Chief Michael Saylor posted an AI Image of barely surviving the Titanic, not the best take. The Bitcoin buying stock is down 30%+ for the year, but Bitcoin is still up so far.
Speaking of Saylor, he had to deny claims Friday from famed Bloomberg Terminal update reposter account Walter Bloomberg, who said Arkham data found evidence that Strategy moved 47,000 Bitcoin, possibly a sell-off.
Saylor said no way, the company said it moves coins internally all the time in between wallets, but red days make normal moves look scary.
Now That You Mention Crypto Treasury Stocks
Cypherpunk, formerly known as Leap Therapeutics, flew this past week after it turned into a crpyto treasury company and bought 203,775 ZEC at an average $245.37 per token. $ZEC.X ( ▲ 43.43% ) Zcash flew in value this week as bitcoin tanked, it’s a privacy token created by a coven of privacy nuts like Edward Snowden in an international seance ritual. Seriously, look it up.
Zcash is now worth nearly $600, and investors are flocking to $CYPH ( ▲ 56.25% ), a firm owned by the Winklevoss twins' family office, Winklevoss Capital. The family bought in with $58.9 million private placement announced Wednesday, and aims to buy up 5% of the privacy token.