• New highs for an index that's doubled in the past 4.5 years: Optimism for a rate cut announcement at the Fed's meeting on 17-18 December helped to fuel fresh record levels for the Nasdaq, pushing beyond 20,000 for the first time, while four of the 'Magnificent Seven' hit new all-time highs.
• "My prediction for inflation and interest rates is that they won't be easy to predict": Analyst Seth Jayson shared his Foolish (capital F) advice: "The most recent inflation reading shows price increases a continuing risk to the big and/or frequent rate cuts many investors are hoping for to drive returns higher ... Don't anchor investing decisions to these unknowables."

Adobe (ADBE 0.53%) is down over 9% in pre-market trading, despite posting revenue and earnings that were better than analyst expectations.

• Keeping pace with competition: The results showed good progress on reaching milestones for releasing AI-driven enhancements for the Firefly product family. Fool analyst Kirsten Guerra recently noted "for professional usage at scale, Firefly's expanding genAI suite is an overall value-add to Adobe's already sticky ecosystem."
• Disappointing outlook: Driving the stock down was the weak growth forecast for the current quarter. Management's revenue guidance of $5.63-$5.68 billion is below the Wall Street consensus average and only marginally ahead of this latest quarter's results. Adobe is ranked 26th in The Motley Fool's Moneyball database.