Stock Market Live November 21: S&P 500 (VOO) Bounces Higher on Positive Fed Commentary

• StockStory Top Pick NVDA -2.06%
• BULL -7.27% VOO +0.14%

This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.

December's right around the corner, and with it, the next chance that the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates, giving the stock market one final boost as it wraps up its year. Yesterday, a stronger-than-expected September jobs report, plus an earnings beat from Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), had investors convinced that no interest rate cut is in the cards.

Today, however, is different.

Thanks to comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams at a speech in Santiago, Chile (of all places), last night, market pundits have raised the chance of one final quarter-point rate cut in 2025 to 70%. And on this hope, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is up 0.4% premarket.

Williams told the crowd in Chile that, in his personal opinion, there's still "room for a further adjustment in the near term to the target range for the federal funds rate to move the stance of policy closer to the range of neutral, thereby maintaining the balance between the achievement of our two goals."

It's a bit verbose, but investors are interpreting the statement to mean: "Yep, I bet we'll cut the interest rate in December."

Quick Read

• New York Federal Reserve President John Williams gave a speech in Santiago, Chile, seeming to predict a Fed interest rate cut in December.

• Trading website stock Webull is up on an earnings beat last night.

• If you’re thinking about retiring or know someone who is, there are three quick questions causing many Americans to realize they can retire earlier than expected. take 5 minutes to learn more here

Earnings

In earnings news, stock trading website Webull (Nasdaq: BULL) is responding not just to the positive interest rate news, but to news of its own earnings beat in Q3. Last night Webull reported $0.07 per share in quarterly earnings, four cents better than expected, and revenue of $156.9 million -- nearly $20 million more than expected.

Webull stock is up 2% premarket.

S&P 500 component company Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) did even better, beating by 25 cents as it reported a $3.34 quarterly profit on sales of $3.9 billion -- also ahead of estimates.

Intuit guided investors to about the same revenue Wall Street expects for fiscal 2026, $21.15 billion, but earnings a little lower than forecast -- $22.98 to $23.18 per share. The stock is up 5% premarket.

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