**U.S. stocks closed higher, expectations for interest rate cuts rise**

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks reversed early losses, with all three major indices closing higher: the S&P 500 rose 0.91%, the Dow Jones increased by 1.43% (setting a weekly high), and the Nasdaq climbed 0.58%.

🔑Key Driver: Weak economic data instead benefits the stock market - this is quite interesting. September retail sales rose only 0.2% (expected 0.4%), the core PPI increase was also below expectations, and ADP weekly data showed a decline in private employment. The November consumer confidence index fell to a 7-month low of 88.7 (expected 93.3).

These "bad news" were interpreted by the market as "good news": the probability of interest rate cuts rose to 80%, and the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell to 3.99% (a 3.5-week low), which directly boosted technology stocks and housing construction stocks.

💡Interestingly, Nvidia fell over 2% due to reports that Meta is in talks to purchase Google’s TPU chips—yet this has actually strengthened big tech stocks like Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon (Meta rose over 3%). The housing construction stocks are even stronger: Builders FirstSource rose over 8%.

📊Data Highlights: The Q3 earnings season is nearing its end, with 83% of S&P 500 companies exceeding expectations, and Q3 earnings rising by 14.6% (far exceeding the expected 7.2%).

**Highlights for Next Week**: FOMC meeting on December 9-10, the market has "locked in" a 25 basis point rate cut.