Crypto-Driven Weakness Pulls Stocks Lower to Start December

The stock market stumbled into December as a sharp sell-off in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies pressured sentiment, pulling the major averages into the red. The S&P 500 slipped 0.5%, the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.4%, and the DJIA lagged with a 0.9% decline.

Equities opened sharply lower but staged a steady rebound throughout the morning. At one point, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite came close to breaching their flatlines, helped by a recovery in the information technology sector, which erased an early 1.3% loss to finish modestly higher.

NVIDIA stood out as a bright spot among the mega-cap names, advancing 1.65% after announcing a strategic partnership with Synopsys aimed at accelerating agentic AI engineering through GPUs, digital twins, and advanced compute infrastructure. Apple added to the sector’s strength with a gain of 1.52%, helping offset broader weakness across tech components.

Amazon was the only other member of the “magnificent seven” to close in positive territory, allowing the consumer discretionary sector to finish flat despite softer action elsewhere. Alphabet, which has been one of the quarter’s top performers, gave back some of its recent gains as traders took profits.

Energy was the day’s only durable outperformer, rising 0.9% as crude oil climbed 1.5% to $59.38 per barrel. OPEC+ confirmed over the weekend that it will hold output levels steady through the first quarter of 2026, giving the sector an additional tailwind.

Yet early resilience faded as the session progressed. Eight S&P 500 sectors ultimately finished lower, led by a sharp 2.4% drop in utilities as rising long-term Treasury yields pushed the sector below its 50-day moving average. Health care also suffered a 1.5% decline despite the announcement of a U.S.–U.K. pharmaceutical pricing agreement aimed at easing long-standing tensions over rebates, tariffs, and pricing practices.

Moderna was the market’s biggest decliner, falling 7%, after a Washington Post report indicated that the FDA may impose stricter vaccine approval standards—a move tied to disputed claims of COVID vaccine-related deaths.

Industrials matched health care’s decline, weighed down by defense stocks. Speculation that President Trump could be making progress toward a plan to end the Russia–Ukraine war pulled the aerospace and defense group lower, with the sector ETF sliding nearly 3%.

Crypto-linked stocks were hit hard across the financial landscape. Coinbase, Robinhood, and Bitmine Immersion Technologies all suffered steep losses as Bitcoin and Ethereum extended their declines. MicroStrategy managed to rebound from its worst levels but still posted a negative finish.

Small caps underperformed as the Russell 2000 dropped 1.3%, while the S&P Mid Cap 400 slipped 0.5%, mirroring the move in larger-cap indices.

While today’s retreat echoed the risk-off tone seen earlier in November, it arrives against a backdrop of still-elevated expectations for a December rate cut. Following last week’s powerful rally, the major averages remain comfortably above their 50-day moving averages, leaving the broader uptrend intact despite a crypto-driven stumble to begin the new month.

Our FTinvest 11 model portfolio extended its upward momentum today, posting a 0.74% gain and closing at a new all-time high of 915.50, with the advance driven largely by one standout component that surged more than 16% after receiving a sizable acquisition proposal.

For most of the session, the portfolio traded with a steady positive bias, but the sharp move in that single holding provided the bulk of the day’s lift. The rest of the basket delivered a more mixed performance, with several constituents edging higher but not matching the outsized rally of the acquisition target.

Even so, today’s action reinforced the index’s resilient tone. After several sessions of grinding toward incremental highs, FTinvest 11 once again demonstrated its ability to benefit not only from broad market forces but also from company-specific catalysts that can meaningfully influence performance.

With the index now firmly above the 915 level, attention turns to whether broader market conditions—or additional corporate developments—can sustain the momentum heading into the remainder of the week.