Markets

• China's factory activity unexpectedly contracts in November, missing estimates, private survey shows - The RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI, conducted by S&P Global, dropped to 49.9 in November, missing analysts' expectations of 50.5 in a Reuters poll.
• Asia-Pacific markets set to open higher ahead of private survey of China’s manufacturing activity - Traders are increasingly expecting a rate cut in the upcoming U.S. Fed meeting on Dec. 10.
• Forget AI spending — the biggest risk to this stock market is speculative junk - The idea that these alternative investments somehow create anything en masse is almost ludicrous.
• Here are the 4 big things we're watching in the stock market this week - Earnings season is winding down as we kick off the last month of 2025.
• An industry focused on death faces an existential crisis - The small, family run companies that make traditional memorialization products like gravestones are facing the dual challenges of tariffs and cremation.
• Silver hit record highs in 2025 – here's why the 'Devil’s metal' has further to run - While industrial demand for silver is expected to decline slightly in 2025, the metal is increasingly used in electric vehicles, for AI components and in photovoltaics.