Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Turkey trade
U.S. stocks enter a shortened trading week on a winning run. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed about 2% last week and notched a record close Friday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both rose about 1.7%. Markets will be closed Thursday and trading will wrap up early on Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Investors will be watching for signs of holiday spending strength during Black Friday, and from a handful of retail earnings early in the week. Follow live market updates here.
2. Holiday hints
Retail will dominate a jammed day of earnings on Tuesday. Companies like Best Buy, Abercrombie & Fitch and Dick's Sporting Goods will offer early reads on consumer spending in the all-important fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Macy's, which was set to report Tuesday, delayed its earnings release due to an accounting issue, but said sales fell about 2% in the third quarter. Here are the key reports for the week ahead:
- Tuesday: Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, Abercrombie & Fitch (before the bell); Workday, CrowdStrike, Dell Technologies, Nordstrom, HP (after the bell)
3. Cabinet choices
President-elect Donald Trump's potential Cabinet is taking shape. Trump said he is picking hedge fund executive Scott Bessent as his Treasury secretary, a move financial markets are already cheering. In the post, Bessent is expected to back a gradual implementation of tariffs and push for deregulation and trimming deficits. Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Trump's pick for secretary of State, appears to have an easier path to confirmation than some of the president-elect's other picks, like Defense secretary choice Pete Hegseth.
4. Brewing a fix
Starbucks has an airport problem. As CEO Brian Niccol tries to reverse several straight quarters of falling sales, he has said licensed locations like those in airports and Target stores can "simplify some of the execution" to deal with long lines. The company's ability to improve the efficiency of the locations will face a test during the busy Thanksgiving travel week.
5. Seeing green
It's popular. "Wicked" is expected to bring in $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally in its opening weekend, according to Sunday estimates. It's the best-ever debut for a Broadway adaptation, after years of struggles to get audiences to see movie musicals. Meanwhile, "Gladiator II" opened with $55.5 million domestically and is expected to hit $221 million globally by the end of the weekend — after opening in some non-U.S. markets earlier this month.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of "Wicked."
– CNBC's Hakyung Kim, Jeff Cox, Sam Meredith, Ece Yildirim, Leslie Josephs, Amelia Lucas and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.
