Tonight’s Highlights | Precious Metals Hit New Highs Together – Nvidia Leads Tech Rebound

The three major U.S. index futures continue mild gains as Christmas holidays approach in Europe and the U.S., with traders awaiting a potential “Santa Claus rally.” After two straight up days last week, tech stocks — led by Nvidia — show slight outperformance.

 

As of press time, Nasdaq 100 futures (March 2026 contract) are up 0.54%, S&P 500 futures up 0.37%, and Dow futures up 0.08%.

 

(Nasdaq daily chart, source: TradingView)

 

Deutsche Bank data shows that since 1928, the S&P 500 averages nearly 4% gains from October 28 to year-end. Currently, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remain negative in this period. Coincidentally, the S&P 500 hit 6,900 highs at end-October and mid-December before AI star-led pullbacks.

 

This year is particularly unique. The benchmark U.S. index is on track for a third consecutive double-digit annual gain, with an over 20% drawdown earlier in the year. Take Nvidia as an example — even after November’s correction, the AI leader has more than doubled from its April low.

 

(Nvidia daily chart, source: TradingView)

 

JPMorgan Global & European Equity Strategy Head Mislav Matejka said investors may close positions and reduce directional risk before year-end to lock in 2025 gains. He noted: “In the very short term, there are no obvious tailwinds.”

 

Compared to stocks’ tepid action, spot gold and silver both hit all-time highs Monday amid geopolitical disturbances, heading for their strongest year since 1979. Spot gold briefly topped $4,400/oz for the first time, while silver advances toward the $70/oz mark with YTD gains nearing 140%.

 

On the news front, the U.S. tightened its oil blockade on Venezuela, while Ukraine struck a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker in the Mediterranean for the first time. Xinhua also reported Monday that Russia’s Investigative Committee confirmed the death of Lieutenant General Salvarov, head of the General Staff’s Combat Training Directorate, in an attack in southern Moscow.

 

Beyond gold and silver, other precious metals are accelerating gains. Spot palladium rose over 4%, platinum gained for the eighth straight day — breaking $2,000/oz for the first time since 2008. Like silver, these metals show signs of speculative inflows.

Other Market News  

San Francisco blackout becomes Robotaxi testing ground  

 

Over the weekend, San Francisco — known as America’s “AI capital” — suffered a rare major blackout. Google’s autonomous driving brand Waymo again drew negative attention: videos of numerous Waymo vehicles parked with hazard lights blocking intersections spread widely online.

 

Waymo rival Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on social media that Tesla Robotaxi was unaffected by the outage.

 

Samsung launches world’s first 2nm smartphone chip  

 

As 2025 nears its end, Samsung Electronics suddenly announced on its website the world’s first 2nm mobile application chip, Exynos 2600. The deca-core chip features one 3.8GHz prime core, three 3.25GHz performance cores, and six 2.75GHz efficiency cores.

 

Samsung plans to hold a Galaxy Unpacked event in the U.S. in February next year to launch new smartphones powered by the Exynos 2600.

 

Apple fined €98.6 million by Italian regulator  

 

Italy’s Competition Authority (AGCM) said Monday it fined U.S. tech giant Apple and two subsidiaries €98.6 million for abusing market dominance in implementing its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy.

 

The regulator stated: “The terms of the ATT policy were unilaterally imposed, harming Apple’s business partners and inconsistent with Apple’s claimed privacy protection goals.” It added the process does not comply with privacy regulations.

 

21 successful launches this year – Rocket Lab higher  

 

As of press time, private rocket company Rocket Lab is up nearly 5% pre-market. The company successfully launched its 21st Electron rocket Sunday — setting a single-year record of 21 launches with a 100% success rate.

 

Abivax reportedly becomes Lilly acquisition target  

 

French biotech ABIVAX Société Anonyme up 17% pre-market Monday. Sources say Lilly is exploring a potential acquisition of the French biotech. Lilly representatives reportedly met with the French Finance Ministry in early December to review the regulatory framework for a potential deal.

 

Memory prices soar – Nvidia reportedly cutting mid-range high-VRAM GPU supply  

 

A rumor fermenting over the weekend claims that with GDDR7 memory chip prices surging, Nvidia will limit supply of some 16GB VRAM cards, including 16GB versions of RTX 5060 Ti and 5070 Ti.

 

Mid-range sweet-spot supply may focus on 8GB 5060 and 5060 Ti. For higher VRAM, consumers may be forced toward pricier products.