The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights General Motors, Western Digital and Standard Chartered

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – December 30, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: General Motors GM, Western Digital WDC and Standard Chartered SCBFF.

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

A Look Ahead to 2026: Global Week Ahead

What is happening in this Global Week Ahead?

A New Year arrives at mid-week!

Let’s consult Scotiabank’s January 2026 Market Themes for Risk Traders—

Click this hotlink.

This is a respected Canadian group of economists you should already know about.

Next is a needed excerpt from their year-end 2025 outlook on 2026.

AN EVENTFUL GLOBAL CALENDAR IN 2026…

Hoping for a less active year in 2026? Good luck. Wishing for as much action as this past one? You might be in luck.

There will be some fun mixed in, like the Winter Olympics in February and the World Cup for soccer/football in the summer.

On top of the usual line-up of global central bank decisions, budgets, and key data releases there will be a wealth of other calendar-based risks. And then there will be the “unknown unknowns” as a former US politician once put it.

Here’s a list:

U.S. Affordable Care Act health subsidies expire Dec 31st.

Fed Chair appointment, guidance points to early January.

Supreme Court Decision on IEEPA tariffs any time by January.

US partial government shutdown risk as funding expires January 30th.

Thai general election February 8th.

China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) by March.

Peruvian general election April.

Colombian presidential election May 31st.

CUSMA/USMCA negotiate or renew deadline July 1st.

Swedish general election September.

Quebec Election by October 5th.

Brazilian general election October.

U.S. Midterm Election on November 7th.

New Zealand general election by December 19th.

Bank of Canada’s (BoC’s) 5-year review of inflation agreement with the government, late year.

…WILL AMPLIFY US POLICY DEVELOPMENTS

What is not on this list because we don’t have dates is the prospect for additional fiscal stimulus in the U.S. as part of what may be a full-on pivot by the Trump administration and how this interacts with the Federal Reserve’s outlook.

As argued here, the US job market is flashing orange on recession risk after growth stopped following ‘Liberation Day’ (chart 13).

I won’t repeat the arguments, but chart 14 adjusts the measure of payrolls for revisions to show that year-over-year payroll growth is weakening even more than official readings.

The stalling job market is getting closer to recessionary conditions with recessions shown as grey bars since the 1940s.

That is a time-honored recession flag. It is avoidable, but the warning sign is clear.

It is untrue that the weakness in payrolls is just because of government firings under DOGE actions.

Chart 15 shows private sector hiring ex-health. Further adjustments would also be required. Private payrolls are also likely contracting after taking account of the revisions argument and distorted seasonal adjustments.

Zacks #1 Rank (STRONG BUY) Stocks

I picked three very big (by Market Capitalization) global large-cap stocks this week.

The first stock is a A-rated Zacks long-term VGM recipient. The other two stocks get marked as F, mostly since they are currently over-valued.

(1) General Motors: This is a $83 a share stock, with a market cap of $77.3B. It is found in Zacks Domestic Auto industry. There is a Zacks Value score of A, a Zacks Growth score of C, and a Zacks Momentum score of C.

(2) Western Digital: This is a $180 a share stock, with a market cap of $61.4B. It is found in the Zacks Computer Storage Devices industry. There is a Zacks Value score of D, a Zacks Growth score of D, and a Zacks Momentum score of C.

(3) Standard Chartered:This is a $24 a share stock, with a market cap of $54.4B. It is found in the Zacks Foreign Bank industry. There is a Zacks Value score of D, a Zacks Growth score of F, and a Zacks Momentum score of F.

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