5 Things to Know Before the Stock Market Opens

Stock futures are holding steady as investors await the Federal Reserve’s final decision of the year on interest rates; the Fed kicks off its two-day policy meeting today, weighing signs that the labor market is weakening against lingering concerns about inflation; Nvidia will be allowed to sell its H200 chips to companies in China, with 25% of revenue going to the U.S. government; the European Union is investigating Google’s use of online data to train its AI models; and Home Depot shares are falling as the company issued an outlook for 2026 that came in below analysts’ expectations. Here’s what you need to know today.

Stocks Little Changed as Investors Await Fed Decision on Rates

Stock futures are hovering near unchanged this morning ahead of the Federal Reserve’s highly anticipated decision on interest rates, which is due Wednesday afternoon. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the benchmark S&P 500 were up less than 0.1% recently, while those linked to the the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell fractionally. The major indexes each declined Monday after ending last week near record highs. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which affects borrowing costs on a wide array of consumer loans, was unchanged from yesterday’s close at 4.17%, near its highest level in more than two months. Bitcoin was trading at $90,600, up from an overnight low of $89,500. Gold futures were up 0.3% at $4,230 an ounce, while WTI crude oil futures rose 0.2% to around $59 per barrel.

Fed Set to Kick Off Final Rate Policy Meeting of 2025

The Federal Reserve’s policy committee is scheduled to convene its two-day meeting today, with a decision on interest rates coming at the end of the gathering. The Fed is widely expected to lower its benchmark fed funds rate for the third consecutive meeting. In addition to awaiting the decision, market participants are eager to see the quarterly projections from committee members on key economic indicators and rates, and to hear from Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed, which is trying to balance fears about a weakening labor market against concerns that inflation remains too high, will get an important piece of data on Tuesday with the release of the Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for October.

Nvidia Gets Green Light to Sell Certain Chips to China

Nvidia (NVDA) got some good news Monday afternoon, when President Donald Trump said that his administration will allow Nvidia to sell its older generation of artificial intelligence GPUs, the H200, to “approved customers” in China, with a 25% cut going to the U.S. government. The Trump and Biden administrations each had concerns about Nvidia and other chipmakers selling their most advanced products to companies in China, amid worries that there could be national security risks in letting China develop its own AI models with the technology. Earlier this year, Nvidia agreed to give the government 15% of sales of its lower-powered H20 chip in China, but the plans fell apart when the Chinese government told companies not to buy them because of its own security concerns with bringing in American products with government involvement. Nvidia shares were up about 1% in recent premarket trading.

EU to Probe Google’s AI Training, Overview Practices

Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google is the subject of a new probe from the European Commission, as the enforcement arm of the European Union will investigate whether Google acted anticompetitively by using online content and YouTube videos to train its AI models. The Commission is “concerned” that Google is using content from online publishers to create the “AI Overviews” at the top of search results pages without proper compensation and offering unfair terms when it does compensate, and that it is giving its own AI models “privileged access” to online content, putting other companies looking to train AI models at a disadvantage. The investigation is the latest in the region’s antitrust push against big tech companies. The EU last week announced a probe into whether Meta Platforms (META) is violating antitrust law with policies prohibiting other AI companies from interacting with users in WhatsApp, potentially giving an advantage to its own chatbot Meta AI.

Home Depot Stock Falls as 2026 Outlook Disappoints

Home Depot (HD) shares are moving lower Tuesday morning after the home improvement retail giant provided a lackluster outlook for next year ahead of its annual investor day. Expecting the broader home improvement market to either decline by up to 1% or grow by up to 1% next year, Home Depot said it expects its own total sales to grow by 2.5% to 4.5%. That compares with the consensus analyst forecast of 4.3%, according to Visible Alpha. Home Depot’s adjusted earnings per share and comparable sales growth forecasts also came in short of what analysts expected. The retailer said it expects sales and profits to grow once the housing market picks up and “pent-up demand” for home improvement projects can be realized, and said it expects to continue growing faster than the larger home improvement market and its competitors. Home Depot shares were down nearly 3% before the opening bell.