Tech and Cryptos return – North American session Market Wrap for December 2

Log in to today's North American session Market wrap for December 2

Today marked another start to December trading, with Equities particularly relating to tech, and Cryptocurrencies leading Market performance and dragging sentiment to a more positive note.

These two were subject to considerable rejection since mid-October as flows turned to risk-on yet more defensive, lower beta assets. This notably helped the Dow Jones to reach new records during the global risk-deleveraging last month.

Now, Bitcoin rallied sharply back above $90,000 and Nasdaq is the best performer out of the three US Major Indexes – So, are things back like they were?

Not entirely – Some bellwether stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) and Microsoft (MSFT) are still lagging, Meta has corrected substantially and the overall sentiment around the Tech-Semiconductor sectors remains one of caution.

A bubble never pops when everyone expects it.

Elsewhere, US President Trump made hints of National Economic Council Secretary Kevin Hassett being his favorite candidate for the Fed Chair.

He will still be required to get voted in throughout the beginning of 2026 by the Senate.

Read More:

• Silver (XAG/USD) is the sole performer, heading toward a new ATH
• Crypto recovery: Dead Cat Bounce or the start of a Buy-the-Dip?
• Dow Jones (DJIA) Outlook: Could the Christmas Spirit awaken?

Bitcoin really stole the show in today's session – You can see how risk-assets dominated today's session (excluding Oil, victim of its own dynamics).

Gold has got rejected particularly harshly so this will be a development to follow in upcoming days.

Today's risk-on session spreaded to Currency Markets, serving the Antipodean currencies pretty well. On the other hand, the Yen dropped by similar margin to which it had appreciated yesterday.

FX movement is still relatively subdued. Markets are hanging around their current levels in the waiting of Friday's US Core PCE release and even more importantly, next Wednesday's FOMC meeting.

Expect some rangebound action all around in the meantime. And of course, never underestimate the releases until then.

The session is not over yet for AUD traders, who have the most significant domestic data release of the quarter on deck.

The evening session will turn the eyes towards Australian GDP (Q3) at 19:30 ET. Growth is expected to tick up to 0.7% QoQ. A strong print here is essential to maintain the RBA's hawkish-hold stance; a miss could quickly price in earlier rate cuts.

This is followed by China's Services PMI at 20:45 ET, providing a health check on the region's largest trading partner.

Tomorrow's session (Wednesday) is packed with central bank rhetoric and critical US service-sector data.

The early European session features final PMI readings and PPI data, but the real focus will be on the ECB. President Lagarde speaks twice (08:30 & 10:30 A.M. ET), flanked by Chief Economist Lane.

The North American Session will likely drive the most volatility: The day starts with a potential shocker: ADP Non-Farm Employment Change (08:15 A.M. ET). The consensus is set at a small +5K (down from 42K), which would signal a stall in private hiring just before the official NFP release and corroborate the weekly ADP readings.

However, the main event is the ISM Services PMI at 10:00 A.M. ET.

As the largest sector of the US economy, a reading near the consensus of 52.1 is expected. Traders should watch the Prices Paid index (previous 70) to see if service-sector inflation remains sticky.

The evening wraps up with AUD Trade Balance (19:30 ET), keeping the Aussie dollar in play.

Safe Trades and a successful December!

Follow Elior on Twitter/X for additional Market News, Insights and Interactions @EliorManier