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Hello. I'm Eliot Brown, here to bring you the latest on the markets .

Wednesday morning's main event is the consumer-price index, the last big read on the U.S. economy before the Federal Reserve's rate decision next week. The CPI likely rose 2.7% in the 12 months through November, economists predict, versus 2.6% as of October.

Ahead of that, U.S. stock futures are quiet, split between small gains and losses. On Tuesday, all three major U.S. stock indexes slipped.

Follow our live coverage throughout the day for the latest news affecting markets.

Meanwhile, our James Mackintosh considers what Donald Trump might mean for the strength of the dollar.

Live Markets Snapshot Data refreshes every time you open this email. CONTENT FROM: Eaton Vance The BEAT: Top Investment Insights from Eaton Vance

Investors face unprecedented uncertainty in Q4 2024. The Fed has begun climbing down the rate peak. Inflation has cooled, but so have jobs. Washington might enact tax policy changes. We can't predict how markets react-but we can help investors act. Spanning bonds, equities, alternatives and transitional investments, we separate signal from noise. Get asset class outlooks in The BEAT.

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Stocks to Watch

General Motors: The automaker said it has scrapped its Cruise robotaxi program, after nearly a decade and $10 billion of development. Shares gained more than 1% premarket.

Walgreens Boots Alliance: Walgreens stock jumped by a record 18% Tuesday, after The Wall Street Journal reported the pharmacy chain was in talks to sell itself to the private-equity firm Sycamore Partners. The stock looked set to hand back some gains Wednesday, falling more than 4% premarket.

Dave & Buster's Entertainment: Shares of the arcade-restaurant operator sank 15% premarket after the company reported a significantly wider quarterly loss and said its chief executive has resigned.

Macy's: Shares of the department-store chain were down about 1% premarket, ahead of its quarterly results. The report, initially scheduled for November, was delayed after Macy's discovered an employee had hidden up to $154 million in expenses over several years.

Adobe will report results after the market close.

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The Fate of Markets Rests on Trump's Dollar Policy

By James Mackintosh

The dollar has been stronger in real terms than now in only four months since the 1985 Plaza Accord, when the world's leading trading nations got together to devalue the greenback. The U.S. is about to get a president who thinks the U.S. has a "big currency problem" because the strong dollar hurts domestic manufacturers.

Yet, the markets have been betting that Donald Trump's policies will mean an even stronger dollar, with the currency up 5% against developed trading partners and 4% against emerging ones since the start of October, when Trump's win began to be priced in.

Could the market have Trump all wrong? Answering this is hard, but vital: The dollar is the global reserve currency, helping set the price not just for international trade but also for markets in almost everything.

Keep reading . Charting the Markets

Leveraged exchange-traded funds win over investors hoping to double or triple the returns of a popular stock or index. The results have been disappointing , vaporizing billions of dollars, but Wall Street keeps finding plenty of eager buyers.

Coffee is hot. Arabica coffee futures on Tuesday hit record levels, pushing past a mark set in April 1977. Contributing to the rise : a spell of hot, dry weather in Brazil this summer, which led to puny beans and defoliated trees in important growing regions.

Oracle shares have surged this year, buoyed by hopes of AI-tied growth. This week's earnings report sent the stock down after Oracle showed it is spending heavily to service that growth, writes Heard on the Street's Dan Gallagher.

Must Reads

Founders and others inside the cryptocurrency industry are hoping for new regulators who champion crypto assets at banks.

A federal judge blocked Kroger from acquiring Albertsons, siding with Biden administration antitrust enforcers who said the merger would erode competition.

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Andrew Ferguson to lead the Federal Trade Commission. He is likely to abandon the Biden administration's liberal approach to policing mergers.

More:

The PGA Tour and LIV's Saudi Backers Have a Deal-but There's One Holdup The Onion's Bid for Infowars Rejected in Bankruptcy Court General Motors Scraps Cruise Robotaxi Program This Day in Markets On this day in 1941, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in all "enemy securities," including those from Germany and Japan. Beyond the Newsroom

Buy Side from WSJ: The Best Savings Account Rates in December

About Us

We want to be the first place you go to get ready for the opening bell every day. This newsletter was written by Eliot Brown ( [eliot.brown@wsj.com]) in London.

This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2024 06:18 ET (11:18 GMT)

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