What is happening in this Global Week Ahead?

Markets show no signs of slowing down as they head into December with big stories playing out: from Wall Street to Tokyo, and via the virtual corridors of OPEC+.

• Alphabet is back in the AI game
• Investors and diplomats alike are wondering whether there is any chance, of an end to the war in Ukraine

Nonetheless, the signs are December could be a good month for stocks.

Next are Reuters’ five world market themes, re-ordered for equity traders—

(1) In December, Stocks May Well Head Up. Will There Be a Santa Claus Rally?

Markets are heading into the end of the year on a more even keel than at the start.

Erratic U.S. policymaking stirred volatility to crisis levels at points this year. But much has faded, and tariffs, however unwelcome for consumers and businesses, are set to stay.

The market has seemingly accepted U.S. long-term finances are unlikely to improve any time soon, but rates are set to fall in 2026, offering a layer of comfort.

This earnings season reflected a corporate sector in rude health, and while the S&P 500 (SPY) is heading for a -0.4% decline this month, the bulls need not fret.

The S&P500 index has only ever fallen in both November and December in nine out of the last 50 years.

(2) Alphabet Has Ascended Towards Leadership in the “AI Race”

The artificial intelligence spotlight is shining on Alphabet (GOOGL Quick QuoteGOOGL - Free Report) , with the Google parent's stock now 2025's standout performer among the "Magnificent 7" megacaps.

Once seen on the AI back-foot following OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT, Alphabet has benefited from the strong performance of its cloud business and the launch of the latest version of its AI model Gemini.

Meta (META Quick QuoteMETA - Free Report) is reportedly in talks to spend billions of dollars on Google's chips, news this week that also rattled shares of semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA).

Alphabet's shares are up nearly +70% year-to-date, roughly doubling Nvidia's 2025 gain, as its market value approaches $4 trillion.

But concerns about returns on massive AI investments have weighed on tech shares and will remain an issue for markets in the coming week, even as stocks have rebounded from their recent pullback.

(3) Bond Market Traders? They Focus Heavily on Japan Now

Debt auctions and speeches by central bankers are in focus in Japan where currency and bond markets are on edge after the announcement of massive stimulus.

The benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield hit a 17-year high while the 30-year yield jumped to a record this month on concerns over the size of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's spending plan.

While higher yields normally support a currency, the yen is at a near 10-month low against the dollar. Traders fret Japanese authorities will intervene to stop it weakening further.

The jump in borrowing costs has spooked Takaichi's administration. The new premier said that her plan was not "reckless spending" and that policymakers were closely watching JGB yields.

The latest test for JGBs will come when the Ministry of Finance sells 10-year debt on Tuesday and 30-year on Thursday.

Short-term yields have surged too as the Bank of Japan signals a near-term rate hike is possible; Governor Kazuo Ueda speaks in Nagoya on Monday.

(4) OPEC+ Meets to Discuss Steps to Take on Weak Global Oil Prices

Speaking of oil, OPEC+ is expected to keep oil output levels unchanged at its meetings on Sunday, while agreeing on a mechanism to assess members' maximum production capacity, Reuters reported, citing sources.

The eight OPEC+ countries, which began raising output in April 2025 after years of cuts, plan to maintain their pause on hikes through the first quarter of 2026, driven by fears of oversupply and seasonally weaker oil demand.

Since April, these members — including Saudi Arabia and Russia — have lifted targets by about 2.9 million barrels per day.

Oil prices have been trending lower this year, down from a peak of more than $82 a barrel in January to the low $60s this week on those supply overhang concerns and speculation that a Russia-Ukraine peace deal could boost Moscow’s exports.

(5) Can Russia’s War on Ukraine be Stopped… by Diplomacy?

U.S. President Donald Trump's latest push to end Russia's war in Ukraine — his long-sought goal — has spurred a fresh bout of shuttle diplomacy and brought momentum to parts of financial markets.

Developments have come hard and fast. A 28-point U.S. peace plan that Ukraine and Europe felt bowed to Moscow's demands on NATO and Ukrainian territory saw Europe launch a counter proposal.

Kyiv and Washington have since created an updated framework, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said could become the basis of future agreements to end the conflict, but that if not Russia would fight on.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is due in Moscow to discuss the proposal.

Ukraine's bonds have rallied in recent days, while European defense stocks and oil have dropped.

Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) Stocks

I picked three major large-cap Tech stocks this week.

Each shows an overvalued Zacks Value scores of F. Covering analysts remain excited about their underlying EPS fundamentals, for better or worse.

Consult the Zacks Share Price, EPS Consensus and EPS Surprise charts yourself.

Is their share price top in?

(1) Vertiv (VRT Quick QuoteVRT - Free Report) : This is a $172 a share stock, with a market cap of $65.8B. It is found in Zacks Computers – IT Services industry. There is a Zacks Value score of F, a Zacks Growth score of B and a Zacks Momentum score of F.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

 

Vertiv is a leading global provider of critical digital infrastructure and services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial environments.

Vertiv serves essential industries, including cloud computing, financial services, healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, energy, government, education, retail and social media.

The company designs, manufactures, installs, maintains and services a broad portfolio of hardware, software, and integrated solutions that ensure digital infrastructure operates continuously, optimally, and can scale with business demands.

These solutions include AC and DC power management, thermal management, switchgear, busbars, racks, modular systems, and comprehensive infrastructure monitoring tools.

Vertiv also offers lifecycle services such as predictive analytics, preventative maintenance, project management, and critical infrastructure software, supported by more than 300 service centers and 4,000 service engineers globally.

Headquartered in Westerville, OH, Vertiv operates in more than 40 countries, structured across three regional segments: the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA).

In 2024, Vertiv reported net sales of $8.01 billion, with 56% from the Americas, and 22% each from Asia Pacific and EMEA.

Vertiv primarily serves three end markets: Data Centers — including hyperscale/cloud, colocation, and enterprise environments; Communication Networks — supporting the infrastructure for mobile and Internet connectivity; Commercial and Industrial Applications — including utilities, government facilities and industrial operations.

The company positions itself as a differentiated competitor in a landscape that includes niche players like Delta Electronics, Stulz, Johnson Controls and global giants including Schneider Electric, Eaton, Huawei, Legrand, Super Micro Computer and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

(2) Seagate (STX Quick QuoteSTX - Free Report) : This is a $272 a share stock, with a market cap of $58.1B. It is found in the Zacks Computer-Integrated Systems industry. There is a Zacks Value score of D, a Zacks Growth score of C, and a Zacks Momentum score of F.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Headquartered at Dublin, Ireland, Seagate is a leading provider of data storage technology and infrastructure solutions. 

• The company’s primary product offering is hard disk drives which is commonly referred to as disk drives, hard drives or HDDs. HDDs are used as the primary medium for storing digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating disks with magnetic surfaces.
• Seagate also develops other electronic data storage products such as SSDs (solid state drives) and storage subsystems.
• Also, the company offers storage solutions like a scalable edge-to-cloud mass data platform that includes data transfer shuttles and a storage-as-a-service cloud.

The HDD and SSD product portfolio includes Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA), and NonVolatile Memory Express (NVMe) based designs to support various mass capacity and legacy applications.

The systems portfolio includes storage subsystems for scale-out storage servers, enterprises, cloud service providers (CSPs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Seagate reported revenues of $9.1 billion in fiscal 2025.

The Mass Capacity Storage product line includes high-capacity enterprise HDDs that ship in capacities of up to 44TB. The portfolio also includes enterprise nearline SSDs, video and image HDDs (VIA) and network attached storage (NAS) HDDs and SSDs. In fiscal 2025, the company shipped 595 exabytes of HDD storage capacity. It generated 80% of its revenues from OEMs, 12% from distributors and 8% from retailers. Regionally, 49% came from the Americas, 41% from the Asia Pacific and 10% from EMEA.

Starting from first-quarter fiscal 2026, Seagate reports revenues under two end markets - Data Center, encompassing nearline products and systems sold to cloud, enterprise and VIA customers, and Edge IoT, covering consumer and client-focused segments, including network-attached storage. The structural changes in its business model are poised to generate greater profitability and improve its financial health.

It shipped more than 1 million Mozaic drives during the September quarter.

(3) Celestica (CLS Quick QuoteCLS - Free Report) : This is a $332 a share tech stock, with a market cap of $38.2B. It is found in the Zacks Electronics – Manufacturing Services industry. There is a Zacks Value score of F, a Zacks Growth score of B, and a Zacks Momentum score of F.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Headquartered in Ontario, Canada, Celestica is one of the largest electronics manufacturing services companies in the world, primarily serving original equipment manufacturers, cloud-based and other service providers and enterprises from several industries.

The company offers a comprehensive range of manufacturing and supply-chain solutions related to design and development, new product introduction, engineering services, component sourcing, electronics manufacturing and assembly, testing, systems integration, logistics, product licensing, after-market repair, return and information technology (IT) asset management and disposition services.

Celestica's extensive depth and breadth of offerings support a wide variety of customer requirements, from low-volume, high-complexity custom products to high-volume commodity products.

The company has two reporting segments: Advanced Technology Solutions and Connectivity & Cloud Solutions.

• Advanced Technology Solutions (24.5% of third quarter 2025 net sales): The segment primarily focuses on aerospace and defense (A&D), Industrial, HealthTech, and Capital Equipment businesses, which include semiconductor and display verticals. Major customers in this segment are Applied Materials, Inc., LAM Research and Honeywell.
• Connectivity & Cloud Solutions (75.5%): The segment primarily serves communications and enterprise verticals. The Enterprise vertical includes the server and storage business. In this segment, company’s major customers are IBM, Dell, Meta and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

Celestica faces significant competition from Benchmark Electronics, Jabil, Flex, Hon-Hai Precision Industry, Plexus and Sanmina.

The company reported revenues of $9.65 billion in 2024, 70% of which was generated from Asia and 20% from North America.

Key Global Macro

This is the first week of December. There will be lots of useful macro reports to parse.

On Sunday, the RatingDog manufacturing PMI for Mainland China came in at 49.9 Sunday, below the 50.5 analysts had been expecting and the prior reading of 50.6.

The Jibun Bank Japan manufacturing PMI for NOV also came out, resulting in an increase to 48.7 from a downwardly revised 48.2 reported the prior month.

On Monday, the U.S. ISM manufacturing PMI for NOV is out. The prior reading was 48.7.

Fed Chair Powell gives a speech.

On Tuesday, the Euro Area core HICP inflation rate for NOV comes out. The prior core reading was +2.4% y/y. The prior broad HICP reading was +2.2% y/y.

On Wednesday, the U.S. APD private jobs report is out for NOV. The prior reading was +42K.

The ISM services PMI comes out for NOV. The prior reading was 52.4%.

On Thursday, Euro Area retail sales for OCT come out. The prior annual reading was a tepid +1% y/y mark.

Challenger’s U.S. job cuts for NOV come out. The prior reading was 153K.

On Friday, the delayed broad U.S. PCE and core PCE indices come out, for SEP.

U.S. Core PCE is likely up +2.9% y/y. The broad PCE is likely up +2.8% y/y.

Conclusion

On Nov. 21th, 2025 Zacks Research Director Sheraz Mian put out a brief update.

What he wrote:

Please note that the ‘Mag 7’ tech stock group is on track:

• To bring in 26% of all S&P500 earnings in 2026 
• Up from 23.2% of the total in 2024, and
• +11.7% in 2019

Regarding market cap, the ‘Mag 7’ group currently carries a 34.7% weight in the index.

Q3 Earnings Season Scorecard

Including all reports released through Friday, November 21st, we now have Q3 results from 473 S&P500 members, or 94.8% of the index’s total membership.

The reporting cycle has come to an end for 10 of the 16 Zacks sectors, with most of the remaining results coming via the Tech and Retail sectors.

Total earnings for these S&P500 companies?

• Q3 EPS was up +15.6% y/y, on +8.3% higher revenues
• 83.4% beat EPS estimates, and
• 75.6% beat revenue estimates

Reflect on this: Roughly 35% of the S&P500’s total market cap comes via Mag 7 stocks.

Seven stocks, people. Just seven stocks.

The total number of U.S. and international stocks currently listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq is approximately 6,113.

7/6113 = 0.001145 (0.11%)

The current population of the USA? Around 342 million.

That’s it for me.

Enjoy this first wintry week of December — in trading and investing.

Warm Seasonal Regards,

John Blank, PhD.
Zacks Chief Equity Strategist and Economist