Daily summary: euphoria in small caps; copper breaks new highs 🚀

U.S. indices began the cash session cautiously, but are now ending the day slightly higher. The clear leaders of today’s session are companies from the US200 (Russell 2000 index +1.50%), i.e. small-cap stocks.

The gains are driven mainly by optimistic PMI and ISM data and weaker ADP figures, which fuel hopes for a December Fed rate cut.

Companies from the main US500 index are performing slightly worse, but the index is still up over 0.28%. The weakest performers are tech companies. The US100 index is barely up 0.07%, with the main drag coming from Nvidia, Microsoft, Eli Lilly, and Netflix.

Copper continues its rally, hitting a new ATH above 11,400 dollars per tonne. The market fears an impending copper shortage. Chinese refineries are cutting output, and a series of mining accidents over recent months has significantly reduced raw-material supply.

The ADP private-sector report showed a decrease of 32K jobs in November, mainly due to cuts in small businesses. Medium and large companies increased hiring, highlighting the uneven nature of the labor market. The macro environment remains uncertain, and consumer strength is weakening.

The November ISM services report indicates a moderate but still stable pace of growth in U.S. service-sector activity. The headline ISM services index rose to 52.6.

The prices index recorded a significant drop to 65.4 from 70.0. This signals a cooling of inflationary pressures in the services sector, although the value of the index remains elevated.

Monthly industrial production from the U.S. improved slightly from -0.1% to +0.1%, beating estimates of 0%. Capacity utilization remained roughly unchanged, which was below market expectations.

Microsoft has denied reports from The Information claiming that the company lowered sales-growth targets and quotas for selected AI products after some sales teams failed to meet internal goals. After publication of the report, Microsoft shares initially fell nearly -3% to around 475 USD. They have now partially recovered to about -1.65% near 481 USD.

Cryptocurrencies continue to rebound. Bitcoin has crossed 93,000 USD, gaining 2.00%. Ethereum is posting even stronger gains, up 4.50% to 3,133 USD. The market cap of other altcoins is up 1.91% to 892 billion USD.