Stock Market Today: Dow closes higher as rally mode continues into December

Investing.com — The Dow closed higher Friday, as Treasury yields were pressured by growing expectations for sooner rate cuts even as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned against “premature” bets on rate cuts.

By 16:00 ET (21:00 GMT), the  rose 294 points, or 0.8%, while the gained 0.6%, and the added 0.6%. The S&P 500 ended the day at 4,594.63, a closing high for the year, following a jump in November. 

The gains followed stellar November performance for the major indexes, with the and registered their biggest monthly percentage increases since July 2022, while the soared to its best month since October 2022.

Treasury yields sidestep Powell’s attempt to pushback against rate cut bets

Treasury yields fells sharply, shrugging off Powell’s warning that it “would be premature to conclude with confidence that we have achieved a sufficiently restrictive stance, or to speculate on when policy might ease.”

The odds of a March cut jumped to 57.9% from 21.6% the prior week, according to Investing.com’s .

The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which is more sensitive to Fed policy, slumped 15 basis to 4.561%, its lowest level since June, while the 10-year Treasury also fell sharply to 4.217%.

Tesla cuts losses but ends lower after pricing Cybertruck at high-end of expectations

In corporate news,Tesla (NASDAQ:) cut some losses to end the day around 0.5% lower after the electric-vehicle manufacturer revealed a starting price of nearly $61,000 for its highly-anticipated Cybertruck, about 56% higher than the starting price announced in 2019.

“This pricing is at the high end of what we expected, and supports our view that conversion rate on the 1M + reservations will be low, likely under 20%,” RBC Capital Markets said in a note. 

The base model Cybertruck is only set to roll out in 2025, leaving room for the price to “ultimately come down after deliveries to early adopters,” RBC added.

Ulta Beauty fashions impressive quarter; Marvell falls on outlook

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:) lifted its full-year guidance and talked up the outlook going into the key holiday shopping season after the cosmetics retailer reported Q3 results that topped Wall Street estimates. Its stock jumped nearly 11%.

Ulta’s quarterly results showed “that demand for beauty remains strong,” UBS says, and the set up for the stock into 2024 “looks quite appealing as the company articulated confidence that it can maintain its algo next year.”

Marvell Technology Inc (NASDAQ:), meanwhile, fell more than 5% as better-than-expected quarterly results were overshadowed by weaker guidance than expected. 

The results weighed down by its legacy businesses in enterprise and carrier markets, but some analysts remained optimism pointing to AI-related growth. 

“The good news is cloud/AI is solidly on track,” analysts at Bank of America Securities said in a note.

Apple, Paramount in talks to team up on streaming bundle; Disney reinstates dividend

Apple (NASDAQ:) and Paramount Global (NASDAQ:) are reportedly in early discussions to bundle their streaming services at a discounted rate, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.  

Walt Disney (NYSE:) stock fell 0.2% despite announcing the reinstatement of its dividend, as the entertainment giant turned down the request of Trian Fund Management, led by activist investor Nelson Peltz, for board representation.

Oil gains after OPEC-induced losses

edged higher Friday, clawing back some losses from the previous session when the voluntary oil output cuts agreed by OPEC+ producers fell short of expectations.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed to a voluntary output reduction of 900,000 barrels per day in addition to extending 1.3 million barrels per day in production cuts already in place. 

(Peter Nurse and Oliver Gray contributed to this item.)