Holiday-thinned markets cheered by strong Wall Street finish

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Mega car fusion
Nissan and Honda are started official merger discussionsboth companies announced on Monday. Negotiations end June 2025. List of Japan Honda shares were last 13.4% on Tuesday and in track of his best day since October 2008after the company announced plans to buy 24% of its issued shares from December 23 of next year.

Taiwan is at the top of the Asian markets
As of December 23, Taiwan’s Taiex had gained 28.85%, making the best performing stock market in Asia-Pacific in 2024. Taiex’s focus on tech and technology tech has helped supercharge its performance. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company increased 82.12% in 2024, and Foxconn – which trades as Hon Hai Precision Industry – advanced 77.51%.

The positive start of the holidays
the US markets rose on Monday on the back of a strong showing from the big tech stocks. The New York Stock Exchange closes early on Tuesday for Christmas Eve. Asia-Pacific Stocks traded mixed tuesday. of Japan Nikkei 225 it fell about 0.4% even as Honda shares rallied. Meanwhile, Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose more than 1%.

UK GDP is not doing well
U The UK economy is not expanding in the three months ending in September, according to the figure reviewed by the National Statistics Office, published on Monday. Previous estimates had pegged third-quarter gross domestic product at 0.1%. Earlier this month, data from the ONS showed that the UK economy had unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in October.

[PRO] Buffett’s biggest war chest
by Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway is currently holds $325 billion in cash – the largest amount that is accumulated in absolute terms. Cash now comprises about 30% of Berkshire’s total assets, the highest proportion in 34 years, according to Oppenheimer data. Buffett has sold large amounts of Apple and Bank of America shares this year. Why does the legendary 94-year-old investor hold onto so much money? Analysts weigh in.

US markets began the trading week in holiday cheer. U S&P 500 gained 0.73% and the Dow Jones Industrial Averagerecovering from earlier losses, ticked up 0.16%. U Nasdaq Composite added 0.98% on the back of strong performances from large technology companies such as Nvidia, Tesla and Meta Platforms.

However, the actions of the bitcoin proxy Microstrategy slumped 8.8% in its first day in the Nasdaq-100 index, after the price of the cryptocurrency fell below $93,000 on Monday.

That said, MicroStrategy is still among the best-performing U.S. technology companies valued at $5 billion or more, according to FactSet data. Its shares are up 426% so far this year, mostly thanks to the company stockpile of bitcoinswhich began to accumulate in 2020.

With the rally in bitcoin following Donald Trump’s election victory, MicroStrategy’s bitcoin holdings are now worth about $42 billion. That’s the basis for the company’s market capitalization growing to $82 billion from about $1.1 billion since it started buying bitcoin in bulk.

Investors looking to ride on MicroStrategy’s explosive rise should remember that the company’s stock price is currently trading on the back of bitcoin prices.

The flipside of this is that if bitcoin prices crater for any reason – as volatile as cryptocurrency can be – MicroStrategy’s stock may also stumble.

Trading is likely to be thin this week. Markets in the United States will close early on Tuesday and take a break on Wednesday for Christmas Day.

But light trading does not mean small movements in the markets. “With the main market trends still intact, we do not give up the potential of a Santa Claus to come to Broad & Wall this year,” Craig Johnson, Piper Sandler market technician, said in a note.

As investors celebrate the holidays — and the S&P’s 25.25% year-to-date pop — they may find an extra present under the tree.

— CNBC’s Yun Li, MacKenzie Sigalos and Ari Levy contributed to this report.

CNBC Daily Open will be on hiatus and will return next year. Happy holidays!