Overview
- U.S. stock futures and global shares fell, with S&P 500 contracts down roughly 0.6% to 0.8% as investors turned cautious at the start of December.
- BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said policymakers will weigh raising rates at this month’s meeting, lifting the yen and pushing Japan’s two-year yield to about 1.01%, the highest since 2008, as the Nikkei dropped nearly 2%.
- Bitcoin extended its slide to roughly $85,000–$88,000 and Ether to below $2,900, with CoinCentral reporting forced liquidations of more than $150 million in BTC longs and about $140 million in ETH longs.
- Oil prices rose more than $1 a barrel after OPEC+ confirmed a pause in planned production hikes for the first quarter, with WTI near $59–$60 and Brent around $63.
- Despite the risk-off tone, markets still price a high probability of a 25 bp Fed cut in December—around 87% to 94% by CME/LSEG gauges—while investors watch ISM, ADP, a delayed PCE print, and remarks from Jerome Powell for confirmation.