Review & Preview: Bitcoin Stops Bleeding

Dec 02, 2025 19:46:00 -0500 by Connor Smith | #Markets #Review & Preview

Bullish Impulse. A rebound in Bitcoin served as a green light for Wall Street to buy the dip in riskier assets.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6% today after stumbling to start December. The S&P 500 was up 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 185 points, or 0.4%.

Among ETFs focused on stocks with specific characteristics, the day’s big winners were risk, tech, and momentum. Low volatility, dividends, and value focused funds lagged behind.

The artificial intelligence trade got a boost from Credo Technology and MongoDB, which both surged after reporting results Monday evening. The iShares Semiconductor ETF jumped 2%.

The rally in risk followed a 6% surge in Bitcoin, which moved back above the $90,000 threshold. Sevens Report Research’s Tom Essaye told me that crypto stabilizing may be more important than people think.

“It’s almost sort of the canary in the coal mine—not necessarily in a tremendously negative way—but it’s giving us a sort of a truer measure of this sort of ‘bullish impulse’ that’s really carried markets higher in the last couple of months,” Essaye says. “And the sooner that can stabilize and begin to move higher, the more that bullish sentiment comes back into the market and increases the chances that we could see a bounce into year end.”

The session also featured a rebound in the Magnificent Seven; only Tesla closed lower among the group. Leading the Mag 7 was Apple. More on that below…

Company

Last

Chg

Chg%

Dow Jones Industrial Average

47,936.52

462.06

0.97%

S&P 500 Index

6,857.24

27.87

0.41%

NASDAQ Composite Index

23,488.38

74.71

0.32%

Market Data as of

The Hot Stock: Boeing +10.2%
The Biggest Loser: Block -6.6%

Best Sector: Industrials +0.9%
Worst Sector: Energy -1.3%

Created with Highcharts 9.0.1Tuesday, Dec. 2Index performanceSource: FactSetAs of Dec. 4, 3:50 p.m. ET

Created with Highcharts 9.0.1Dec. 4-0.4-0.3-0.2-0.100.10.20.30.4%Nasdaq CompositeS&P 500Dow industrials

Apple Strikes Back

Don’t look now, but Apple has nearly closed the market value gap with Nvidia.

Apple shares rose 1.1% to $286.19 today to mark its 14th closing high of the year. Its market cap is up to nearly $4.25 trillion, putting the company within $200 billion of Nvidia for the title of largest public company.

Apple shares have rallied 18% in the past 12 months and are riding their longest winning streak since May 1. My Barron’s colleague Adam Levine points out that Apple’s rally continued through the news that the firm’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, was retiring.

The latest run could be a sign that Wall Street is finally looking beyond worries about AI. Adam writes:

As is usually the case for Apple, iPhone sales matter most. The stock is up 16% since Oct. 10, as positive reports began to mount about the sale of Apple’s new iPhone 17 lineup. Aside from Alphabet, which has had a good run of AI news, Apple is the best performing Magnificent Seven stock during that period. It’s also beaten the index by 12 percentage points.

Over the past four years, iPhone sales have grown 7% or less, including 4.2% in fiscal 2025, which ended this past September. But the iPhone 17 lineup, which went on sale in the fall, seems to have changed the trend. Recent data from research firms, including Counterpoint, suggests iPhone sales growth has returned to double digits.

You can read more from Adam on Apple here.

The Calendar

Salesforce, Snowflake, Dollar Tree, and Five Below announce earnings tomorrow.

ADP releases its National Employment Report for November, and the Institute for Supply Management releases its Services Purchasing Managers’ Index for November. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports export and import price data for September.

What We’re Reading Today

What’s Ahead for Markets in 2026? Join Barron’s virtual roundtable on Dec. 11.

From “Liberation Day” tariffs to torrid rallies in AI stocks and gold, this year has been full of surprises. Join us for discussions with investment strategists and money managers about the outlook for the economy and markets in 2026—and how to position your portfolio for success.