Markets Mostly Lower on Inflation Uncertainty

Monday, December 8, 2025

Market indexes began the trading day looking somewhat buoyant, but quickly sagged into the red on all but the small-cap Russell 2000, which skipped along unchanged levels and finished flat for the session. The Dow lost -215 points today, -0.45%, the S&P 500 was -23 points, -0.35% and the Nasdaq was -32, -0.14%. Bond yields tacked higher on the day to +4.17% on the 10-year, nearly 20 basis points higher than we saw just a couple short weeks ago.

Bond yields rising are an indication that inflation may be present in the economy, and to an extent this is warranted: Zacks Strategist Andrew Rocco, in his report today “Liberation Day Tariffs: Panic, Recovery & What Comes Next,” noted that “the long-term effects of tariffs remain a story still unfolding.” With a pending 25 basis-point (bps) interest rate cut most likely coming mid-this week, inflation metrics will be worth considering into 2026 and beyond.

Earlier today, Paramount Skydance PSKY announced a hostile takeover bid for Warner Brothers Discovery WBD, which last week said it had agreed to be acquired by streaming giant Netflix NFLX. PSKY’s $30 per share, all-cash bid the company feels is a stronger deal than the Netflix agreement. That said, PSKY had only just acquired Paramount — the parent of the film studio, CBS, and much more — in August of this year.
 

Toll Brothers Mixed in Q4 Report

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers TOL provided fiscal Q4 results after today’s closing bell, reporting a miss on earnings — $4.58 per share versus $4.87 expected (and below the year-earlier $4.63 per share) on revenues of $3.41 billion, which outpaced estimates of $3.32 billion. Gross margins improved to +27.1% from expectations.

Because Toll Brothers builds luxury homes which average nearly $1 million per, it isn’t as beholden to mortgage rates as lower-cost homebuilders like KB Home KBH and DR Horton DHI. Even still, the company cited soft demand in its quarterly report today, which helped move the stock down -4% in late trading today — half of the company’s market gains year to date.
 

What to Expect from the Stock Market Tomorrow

The delayed Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for October hits the tape ahead of the opening bell. Expectations are for an in-line report with the prior month at 7.2 million job openings. This would be among the lowest prints of the last 12 months, compared to 7.7 million reported in May of 2025 and 8.0 million in November of last year.

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