The yearly Santa Claus kicked off with First Solar (FSLR) adding 6.6% on Monday to close at $284.59. Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) and Huntington (HII) also gained 5% or more on the day.
Storage supplier Seagate (STX), however, failed to break out above the $300 resistance level. STX stock lost 4.56% alongside a drop in Western Digital (WDC) shares. Technology investors potentially wanted to rotate into Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), Tesla (TSLA), and Amazon (AMZN) instead.
Alphabet announced that it bought a data center energy provider, Intersect. Paying $4.75 billion, the firm provides computing power capabilities. The two firms stated that the acquisition enables Alphabet to bring data center and generation capacity online more quickly.
In the retail sector, Dollar Tree (DLTR) took a break from its breakout. Profit-takers sold shares after the stock topped around $130, up from $100 in November. Dollar Tree posted third-quarter revenue growing by 9.4% Y/Y earlier this month.
Walmart (WMT) shares are also pulling back, while Costco (COST) continued to trade close to its 52-week low. Investors are bracing for consumer discretionary firms to struggle in 2026. Inflation is not subsiding, while interest rate cuts could accelerate it. Consumers will cut back on buying goods that they do not need. That would hurt retailers the most.
