Welcome to Michael Kramer’s pick of the key market events to look out for in the week beginning Monday 8 December.
As 2025 enters the home straight, you could be forgiven for expecting a quiet trading week ahead. In fact it will be anything but. Spread across Wednesday and Thursday we have earnings from three major players in the AI space: Adobe, Oracle and Broadcom. On top of that, the US Federal Reserve will set interest rates on Wednesday, with markets pricing in a roughly 87% probability of a quarter-point cut, according to CME FedWatch. The prospect of a rate cut is fuelling Wall Street expectations that the S&P 500 could rise roughly 10% from current levels to more than 7,500 points by the end of 2026, as reported by the Financial Times.
US Federal Reserve interest rate decision
Wednesday 10 December Most traders expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. The probability of a quarter-point cut has been hovering between 85-90% in recent days. However, a cut – if there is one – may not be the headline news. The most important thing could be what Fed chair Jerome Powell says in his follow-up press conference, and whether he hints at the possibility of a further cut in January. Beyond December, the market currently isn’t pricing in another cut until March.
