Rate cut hopes lift markets, Dell gets AI boost: what happened on US markets

In a week foreshortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, US stocks bounced back as expectations for a pre-Christmas rate cut gathered steam.

This had looked to be off the table thanks to the impact of the US government shutdown on data releases but recent comments from Federal Reserve officials have raised hopes of a cut on 10 December. This helped indices to recover some of the ground lost amid jitters over a potential bubble in artificial intelligence.

Broadcom was among the top risers as investors reacted positively to Google-owner Alphabet’s new Gemini 3 AI model and to reports its custom chips, developed with Broadcom, might be used by Meta Platforms. Data storage businesses were also in demand.

On the flipside, business software outfit Intuit struggled having recently penned a $100 million deal to bring its apps to OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform, with the new iteration of Gemini seen as a competitive threat to ChatGPT.

Dell

Tech infrastructure supplier Dell may have missed revenue expectations in the third quarter but the market focused instead on guidance for stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter growth when it updated on 25 November.

Earnings per share for the three months to 31 October came in at $2.59 against the $2.47 forecast but revenue was below the $27.13 billion consensus estimate at $27.01 billion.

Dell expects around $31.5 billion in sales for the current quarter, some way higher than the $27.6 billion which had been pencilled in with earnings of $3.50 versus the $3.21 previously anticipated.

This was underpinned by an increase in expected revenue from AI server shipments. Strength in this area is helping to make up for a more desultory showing from its traditional laptop and PC business where growth is proving to be much harder to come by in a difficult economic environment.

Deere & Co

Deere & Co fell 6% on 26 November despite the farming equipment maker reporting fourth-quarter revenues and earnings ahead of analysts’ estimates.

Investors were not very thankful after the company lowered fiscal 2026 net income guidance to a range of $4 billion to $4.75 billion, falling short of consensus estimates of $5.3 billion.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Chris Ciolino commented: “Deere’s widely underwhelming 2026 guidance suggests a more severe and prolonged agricultural downturn than we initially anticipated, though it offers clarity on trough earnings this cycle.”

Lower crop prices and rising costs continued to impact farming demand for big-ticket purchases while rising tariff costs are also expected in 2026. Nevertheless, CEO John May said he believes 2026 will mark the bottom of the agricultural equipment cycle.

Deere posted quarterly revenue of $12.4 billion, comfortably ahead of analysts’ estimate of $9.9 billion and earnings per share of $3.93 compared with expectations of $3.85.

Kohl’s

Shares in department store operator Kohl’s surged 53% this week after the value retailer reported third quarter revenue and earnings above analysts’ expectations and raised its full year outlook for the second time in 2025.

The stock has risen three-fold since Michael Bender took on the interim CEO role in May 2025, getting a boost from the so-called meme stock euphoria in July. Bender became the permanent CEO in November.

Kohl’s raised its projection for fiscal 2025 adjusted earnings per share to a range of $1.25 to $1.45, up from $0.50 to $0.80 previously, comfortably above the $0.72 consensus analyst estimate.

Annual sales are now forecast to decline between 3.5% to 4% compared with a decrease of 5% to 6% previously.

The company has been expanding the number of brands and adding more coupon-eligible products to attract value-focused shoppers. “As our customers continue to be more choiceful and remain under pressure, we have the opportunity to meet their needs and offer more value with elevating our proprietary brands,” Bender told analysts.