Good morning investors!

If this is your first time reading, welcome to The Investor’s Edge — a thriving community of nearly 20,000 subscribers striving to be better investors with an edge in the market.

Every weekend we publish “The Weekly Wrap-Up” — your ticket to being well informed and staying ahead in the investment game!

This report is designed to help investors of all skill levels break down important stories/topics within the stock market. And best of all, we cut through all of the BS and give you exactly what you need to know in easy to digest, bite sized pieces of content.

Grab your coffee and let’s dive in.

Market Talk

All three major indexes made all-time highs this week, but the Dow fell slightly to end the week while the S&P and Nasdaq kept rolling.

3 Stories Moving the Market

These are some of the biggest stories from the second half of the week that had an influence on market action.

Payrolls increased 227,000 in November, more than expected; unemployment rate at 4.2%

Job creation rebounded in November, with nonfarm payrolls rising by 227,000, exceeding the Dow Jones estimate of 214,000 and up from October's revised 36,000. September's payrolls were also revised upward to 255,000. October's weaker figure was impacted by Hurricane Milton and a Boeing strike.

The unemployment rate edged up to 4.2%, as expected, due to a lower labor force participation rate and a declining labor force. A broader unemployment measure rose to 7.8%, reflecting discouraged workers and part-time jobs for economic reasons.

Key job gains were seen in health care (54,000), leisure and hospitality (53,000), and government (33,000). Social assistance added 19,000 jobs, while retail trade declined by 28,000, potentially due to a late Thanksgiving delaying seasonal hiring.

Wages grew, with average hourly earnings rising 0.4% month-over-month and 4% year-over-year, both slightly exceeding expectations.

Bitcoin reaches the $100,000 milestone level for first time ever

Bitcoin briefly surpassed the $100,000 mark late Wednesday, reaching a high of $103,844.05, before pulling back to $101,520 by Friday afternoon amid investor profit-taking.

This historic surge followed President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement to nominate Paul Atkins as the new SEC chair, signaling a potential shift away from the stricter regulatory approach of outgoing chair Gary Gensler.

The rally was also supported by comments earlier Wednesday from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who stated, “Bitcoin is just like gold, except it’s digital. Bitcoin is used as a speculative asset; it’s a competitor with gold, not the US dollar.”

Longtime bitcoin investors, who have endured volatile cycles and institutional skepticism, viewed the event as a significant milestone for the cryptocurrency's acceptance.

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Uber, Lyft Stock Slide As Waymo's Miami Plan Reignites Robotaxi Fears

Shares of Uber (-9.6%) and Lyft (-10.1%) tumbled Thursday after Alphabet's Waymo announced plans to expand its robotaxi service to Miami, with testing starting in 2025 and full service launching in 2026.

Waymo, already operating in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, plans to add Austin and Atlanta to its network next year, heightening investor concerns about rising competition in the rideshare market.

The move highlights ongoing fears that self-driving technology, including Waymo's and Tesla's planned Cybercab, will disrupt traditional ride-hailing models.

While Uber has partnered with Waymo to deploy autonomous vehicles on its platform in 2025, the uncertainty surrounding how the self-driving market will evolve is weighing heavily on investor sentiment, adding to pressure on Uber and Lyft stocks.

In Other News

In this section, we'll be curating a selection of news headlines we think you'll find interesting. If a topic catches your eye, click the provided links to read more about it.

• What we know about the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO

• US appeals court reinforces TikTok ban

• Apple Plans Three-Year Modem Rollout in Bid to Top Qualcomm

• Salesforce shares rise after earnings beat on revenue, fourth-quarter guidance

• Lululemon stock jumps as international growth helps to offset slowing U.S. sales

• Chipotle is raising US prices after promising bigger portions

• Ulta Beauty shares pop as retailer beats earnings expectations despite demand fears

• DocuSign's Stock Soars 27.21% to New High After Strong Q3 Earnings Report

• Chevron to take up to $1.5 billion in fourth-quarter charges

• Southwest and American airlines raise sales outlooks, shares jump

• Dollar General Stock Falls on Earnings Miss and Adjusted Guidance

• Dollar Tree Stock Rises as Q3 Results Top Estimates

• American Eagle Plummets on Disappointing Forecast

Edge+ Posts of the Week

We continue to push out more and more content every week to give investors that edge. Here are the posts Investor’s Edge+ subscribers received this week.

Edge Report

Mondays are for the investors. Every Monday morning we share exactly what we’re watching in the week ahead, how we’re positioning, and even share a sneak peek into our systems and models. This week we discussed the upcoming earnings reports and how we were preparing for them, as well as the huge week of economic news. See the latest full report here:

Edge Quick Picks

Every month we break down 5 stocks that we believe are attractive from a valuation perspective right now. See the 5 stocks we are buying in December:

Earnings Recap

Every week during earnings season is extremely busy for us here at the Edge as we dive into over 100 reports and provide our members with top tier breakdowns and insights. This week we saw earnings from Salesforce, Lululemon, Ulta Beauty, and more. See this week’s recap:

The Week Ahead

Inflation will be the focus next week as two key reports are on the calendar, though earnings from several major companies also have the power to move markets.

Earnings Reports

Earnings season may be in the rear view but there are still some heavy hitters left to report. Here is the list of names we will be covering next week:

• Monday 12/9: Oracle

• Tuesday 12/10: AutoZone

• Wednesday 12/11: Adobe

• Thursday 12/12: Broadcom and Costco

• Friday 12/13: --

Here is the full calendar of scheduled earnings releases:

Economic Reports

Next week will be all about inflation as we get both the CPI and PPI reports.

There will also be initial jobless claims.

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Thank you for reading this edition of the Weekly Wrap-Up. Have a great weekend!

Until next time investors!

Mark & Chris

The Investor’s Edge

Disclosure

This is not investing advice. It is very important that you do your own research and make investments based on your own personal circumstances, preferences, goals and risk tolerance.