Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
new york stock exchange
This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox.
Here are five important things investors need to know to start their trading day.
1. Tip-toeing towards a winning week
Stock futures are little changed this morning after the Christmas holidays, but the three major stock averages are still heading for weekly gains.
Here’s what you need to know:
of S&P500 It rose 1.4% this week after setting new intraday and closing records on Wednesday. Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite This is the beginning of a historically strong period of growth in stock prices. Since 1950, the S&P 500 index has risen an average of 1.3% over the last five business days of the year and the first two business days of the new year, according to data from Stock Traders Almanac. Gold and silver hit new highs as precious metals continued their rally. Markets in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong are closed for Boxing Day. Follow live market updates here.
2. Nvidia’s Groq contract
A visitor visits the NVIDIA booth at the 3rd China International Supply Chain Expo on July 20, 2025 in Beijing, China.
Cost Photo | Null Photo | Getty Images
Nvidia CNBC’s David Faber reported Wednesday that the company has agreed to buy assets from semiconductor startup Groq for $20 billion in cash.
In addition to the non-exclusive licensing agreement, Groq founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, president Sunny Mudra and other senior executives will “join Nvidia to help advance and expand the licensing technology,” the company said in a blog post.
The deal is NVIDIA’s largest acquisition ever by a wide margin. Previously, the chipmaker’s biggest acquisition came in 2019, when it bought Israeli chip designer Mellanox for nearly $7 billion.
3. Address change
On December 6, 2017, the Gmail application was confirmed on portable devices.
Null Photo | Null Photo | Getty Images
That embarrassing thing G-mail High school address? That may change soon.
According to an update to Google’s account help page, account holders can now replace their existing @gmail.com address and still keep all their data and services.
However, as CNBC’s Dylan Butts reports, the change only appears on the Hindi version of Google’s support page, suggesting the new feature may start in India or other Hindi-speaking markets.
4. Waymo rain delays
A Waymo self-driving car (seen with its driver) stops at a red light outside the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Friday, March 31, 2025.
Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Inc. | Getty Images
Waymo on Thursday suspended its robotaxi service in the San Francisco Bay Area ahead of heavy rain expected in the region. alphabetThe company that owns the self-driving ride-hailing app said:
The outage comes days after the company announced updates to its vehicles to improve performance during power outages. On December 20, Waymo temporarily suspended service during a power outage in San Francisco that caused some of the company’s self-driving cars to stop in the middle of traffic, contributing to or causing traffic jams.
5. Boot obligation
Women’s Boots for Sale in Annapolis, MD on September 12, 2025.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Whether it’s boots, jackets, or bags, tariffs and supply chain bottlenecks are driving up the price of leather goods for both retailers and consumers.
Tapestry, which owns handbag giants Coach and Kate Spade, is already experiencing rising costs. Company executives told investors in August that tariff-related costs could total $160 million, hurting profits.
The Yale Budget Institute predicts that leather prices will remain nearly 22% high for at least the next one to two years, due in part to heavy tariffs across China, Vietnam, Italy and India, among others.
daily dividend
Here are some articles I recommend making time for this weekend.
—CNBC’s Fred Imbert, Laura Kolodny, David Faber, Dylan Butts and Luke Fountain contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.
