On today's podcast:
1) Global stock gauges have record highs in their sights after a week in which affirmation that the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate easing cycle remains intact helped clear the way for a year-end rally. Europe’s Stoxx 600 rose as much as 0.5% to a fresh peak. A measure for Asia advanced to less than 2% from its all-time high. S&P 500 futures were slightly lower after the benchmark posted a new closing milestone in the previous session, when gauges for blue-chip and small-cap US stocks also pushed into record territory.
2) Broadcom Inc., a chip company vying with Nvidia Corp. for AI computing revenue, slumped after its sales outlook for the red-hot market failed to meet investors’ lofty expectations. The shares fell about 5% in premarket trading on Friday, following unsettling commentary from Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan on a conference call with analysts. He said the company has a backlog of $73 billion in AI product orders that will be shipped over the next six quarters — a number that disappointed some investors. But Tan sought to clarify that the figure was a “minimum.”
3) President Trump said the US would be willing to contribute assistance to Ukraine as part of a security agreement to end the war with Russia, but continued to express frustration with the pace of talks. Still, he expressed disappointment that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had not more readily signed off on an American peace plan, adding to pressure on officials in Kyiv who pushed back on an earlier US proposal seen as too accommodating to Moscow.
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