CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - DECEMBER 23: Benny the Bull, the Chicago Bulls mascot, dresses as Santa Claus in the game against the Milwaukee Bucks during the second half at the United Center on December 23, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

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Stocks rise for the third consecutive session, erasing December losses

Santa baby, just slip a rally under the tree...

12/22/25 4:01PM

All three major US indexes climbed higher in a broad-based rally, with all sector ETFs rising except for consumer staples. The S&P 500 has officially erased December’s losses. Silver and gold hit record highs.

The AI trade got its momentum back, buoyed by positive news flow in recent days that includes Micron’s earnings and stellar outlook as well as OpenAI’s ever-increasing valuation.

Stocks that moved higher:

As the AI ecosystem bounced back, AI-related stocks like neoclouds IREN, Cipher Mining, Nebius, and CoreWeave, AI-adjacent energy play Bloom Energy, and infrastructure provider GE Vernova moved higher. Chip stocks Micron, Nvidia, TSMC, and Advanced Micro Devices rose as well.
Hertz surged on bullish options activity.
Quantum computing stocks D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, and Quantum Computing also surged on bullish options activity.
POET Technologies also jumped on elevated call volumes.
Opendoor Technologies ticked higher after CEO Kaz Nejatian said AI fueled an expansion of the company’s home-buying footprint across the continental US.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose as Paramount Skydance amended its acquisition offer, which now includes a $40.4 billion personal guarantee from Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. Netflix also got more of its ducks in a row for its WBD offer on Monday, refinancing part of its $59 billion bridge loan with longer-term and lower-cost debt, though the stock slightly dipped.
Google struck a deal to acquire data center and energy infrastructure firm Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash.
Rocket Lab added to Friday’s gain, which came after the company announced an $816 million deal to design and manufacture 18 satellites for the US Space Development Agency on Friday, marking the company’s largest single contract to date.

Stocks that moved lower:

Nintendo dipped after news that its popular “Mario Kart World” bundle is seemingly going out of production, per a post on X from GameStop.

Claire Yubin Oh54m

Zoom slumps on weaker-than-expected profit outlook, reports mixed Q4 earnings

Zoom fell 4% in premarket trading on Thursday after offering a profit outlook that came in lower than analysts had expected as part of its FY26 Q4 earnings results.

For the fiscal year ending in January 2027, the video conferencing platform company expects:

Adjusted earnings per share between $5.77 and $5.81, missing analysts’ average projection of $6.06 a share, per Bloomberg data.
Revenue between $5.065 billion and $5.075 billion.

The weak bottom line forecast came after lackluster adjusted profit results for Q4, which came in at $1.44 per share, compared with Wall Street estimates of $1.49. Revenue increased 5% year-on-year to $1.25 billion, just ahead of average analyst expectations.

The company maintained an optimistic tone on its mixed FY26 results, with CEO Eric S. Yuan saying on the earnings call that “In the age of AI, Zoom becomes more essential. We are building the system of action that turns conversations into coordinated execution across work inside the organization and with the world outside, including customer engagement, sales, recruiting, and more.”

Indeed, Zoom has been doubling down on its office collaboration tools recently as it continues to turn towards serving enterprises after the pandemic boom, including launching a corporate phone system and a customer service platform, both of which can sometimes be heavily dependent on expensive AI models.

Hyunsoo Rim1h

Nvidia's Jensen Huang thinks markets “got it wrong” on software stocks sell-off

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said markets have misjudged AI’s impact on software firms in a CNBC interview on Wednesday, hours after the chipmaker reported better-than-expected Q4 results and strong sales outlook for the current quarter.

So far this year, a slew of software stocks, like Adobe, DocuSign, and Workday, have cratered amid mounting concerns that AI agents would eventually displace traditional enterprise software models.

Huang, however, said he believes “the markets got it wrong,” describing agentic AI as “tool users” of existing software rather than a threat to it.

Products like Microsoft Excel, or platforms such as Cadence, Synopsys, ServiceNow, and SAP all “exist for a fundamentally good reason,” he said, adding that agentic AI will be using those tools “on our behalf and help us be more productive.”

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says markets ‘got it wrong’ on AI threat to software companies

So far this year, a slew of software stocks, like Adobe, DocuSign, and Workday, have cratered amid mounting concerns that AI agents would eventually displace traditional enterprise software models.

Huang, however, said he believes “the markets got it wrong,” describing agentic AI as “tool users” of existing software rather than a threat to it.

Luke Kawa14h

Nvidia’s strong results, guidance lift AI ecosystem

Data center stocks Applied Digital, IREN, CoreWeave, and Nebius as well as foundry giant TSMC and optical communications company Corning are catching a bid in after-hours trading thanks to strong results and guidance from Nvidia.

The chip designer’s massive outlook for Q1 sales — with the midpoint at $78 billion, versus a consensus estimate of $72.8 billion — underscores the magnitude of the near-term demand for AI compute and chips. As if the hyperscalers’ massive capex budgets hadn’t already done that!

To be sure, the advances in these stocks in after-hours trading are fairly mild, since most had been on fire in recent sessions in anticipation of a strong quarter.

Nvidia rises after better than expected Q4 results, big upside surprise in Q1 sales guidance

To be sure, the advances in these stocks in after-hours trading are fairly mild, since most had been on fire in recent sessions in anticipation of a strong quarter.

Luke Kawa

14h

Nvidia rises after better-than-expected Q4 results, big upside surprise in Q1 sales guidance

The chip designer delivered its 13th consecutive bottom-line beat and 14th on the top line.

Max Knoblauch14h

Joby posts smaller loss, larger cash pile than expected in Q4, says it expects US early operations to begin this year

Air taxi maker Joby Aviation reported its fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Shares climbed more than 3% in after-hours trading.

The company posted a loss of $0.14 per share, beating estimates of a $0.20 loss.

Joby ended the fourth quarter with $1.41 billion in cash (and cash equivalents), compared to Wall Street expectations of $1.01 billion.

Investors have closely watched Joby’s progress with FAA certification, which will be the determining factor for launching commercial air taxi services in the US. As of the end of Q4, Joby said it is 80% complete with the fourth stage of its five-stage certification process, up from 77% in the third quarter. Joby is 12% complete with the fifth stage, up from 10% in Q3.

Earlier on Wednesday, Joby announced it plans to partner with Uber to offer air taxi rides on the ride-hailing app in Dubai later this year. The companies already partner on Blade helicopter rides.

Joby also said it expects US early operations to begin this year, with the White House’s eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) Integration Pilot Program “set to select at least five sites for mature eVTOL aircraft to begin operating ahead of Type Certification.”