MARKET SNAPSHOT

U.S. stocks fell to start the last week of the year. Treasury yields declined ahead of Fed minutes and following indications of strength in the U.S. housing market and weakness in manufacturing. Oil rose as geopolitical tensions continued to push prices higher. Gold and silver futures both dropped. The U.S. dollar held steady.

MARKET WRAPS

EQUITIES

U.S. stock indexes dropped Monday, led by big technology stocks, including Oracle, Nvidia and Tesla.

The Nasdaq composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell 0.5%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.3% The Dow and S&P 500 had hit all-time highs on Christmas Eve.

There are limited corporate reports or economic data scheduled this week. Investors will view minutes from the Federal Reserve's December meeting on Tuesday for insight into policymakers' disagreements and how those may affect rates next year.

Markets in Asia traded mostly lower on Monday.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended flat, the Shenzhen Composite Index declined 0.3%, and the ChiNext Price Index fell 0.7%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended 0.7% lower.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.4%.

Stocks in Australia slipped, as the S&P/ASX 200 Benchmark Index dropped 0.4%.

New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 Index ended flat.

COMMODITIES

Crude futures recovered much of Friday's losses as the weekend meeting of President Trump and Ukraine's Zelensky left some key points to be settled.

"Crude oil is trading on the perception the Russia/Ukraine peace process is not going to produce a cease-fire anytime soon. Lot of talk but no deal," said Mizuho's Robert Yawger.

A continuation of the war would pressure Russian crude oil production with sanctions testing Russia's ability to move barrels to international customers, he said, while Ukrainian strikes on refineries will "challenge Russia's ability to run the refinery at a high utilization rate."

WTI settled up 2.4% at $58.08 a barrel and Brent gained 2.1% to $61.94 a barrel.

Silver's furious rally turned around with the precious metal's biggest one-day fall in more than four years.

Gold and silver futures both slid after exchange operator CME Group increased margin requirements for the two metals along with platinum and palladium futures in response to recent volatility.

Silver's move was particularly sharp-it dropped 8.7% in the metal's biggest one-day decline since February 2021.

Gold fell 4.50% to $4325.10 a troy ounce.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

Trump Threatens New Military Action With Israel on Iran's Missiles, Nuclear Program

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-President Trump said he would support an Israeli attack to halt Iran from restocking its missile arsenal and would take U.S. action if Tehran sought to rebuild its nuclear program.

Trump made the comments Monday afternoon at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "If they will continue with the missiles, yes," Trump said. He was more emphatic about the nuclear program, saying the U.S. would take action "immediately" if necessary.

"I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down," Trump said, standing outside his Mar-a-Lago club with Netanyahu before they began a private meeting. "We'll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that is not happening."

November Pending-Home Sales Had Fourth Consecutive Monthly Rise

The number of homes going under contract in the U.S. rose for a fourth-straight month in November, according to a monthly index, with the strongest performance observed in the West Region.

Here are the main takeaways from the National Association of Realtors' report released Monday:

Trump Says the U.S. Attacked Venezuelan Docks Where Drugs Are Loaded Onto Boats

President Trump said Monday that the U.S. recently carried out an attack on a dock area in Venezuela where drugs are loaded onto boats and trafficked across international waters, claiming that a "major explosion" had occurred.

"They load the boats up with drugs. So we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area," Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in response to a question from a reporter. "It's the implementation area. That's where they implement and that is no longer around."

Trump didn't provide details of the alleged attack, which would represent a major escalation of the U.S. pressure campaign against Venezuela, but it was the second time in the past few days he had referred to such an operation in vague terms. He also declined to say whether the military or a U.S. intelligence agency was responsible for the attack.

Nvidia Closes $5 Billion Purchase of Intel Shares

Nvidia on Monday completed a $5 billion purchase of Intel shares, paying $23.28 each. The purchase price was 36% below Intel stock's Friday closing price. The deal was approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission earlier this month.

Intel shares have risen 45% since the deal was announced. In early trading on Monday, Intel shares fell 0.5% and Nvidia stock was down 1.5%.

The deal includes plans for Intel CPU chips to be paired with Nvidia's industry-leading artificial intelligence accelerators in Nvidia AI servers, mirroring the role currently played by Nvidia's own Grace CPUs and its upcoming Vera CPUs later this year. The companies also announced that Nvidia graphics technology will be integrated into Intel PC chips. Intel's embedded graphics have long been a sore point for customers.

Lululemon Founder Chip Wilson Launches Proxy Fight to Overhaul Board

Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson is launching a proxy fight at the athletic-apparel retailer in an effort to remake the company's board while Lululemon searches for a new chief executive.

Wilson said Monday that he has nominated three director candidates to the company's board, confirming an earlier report by The Wall Street Journal.

The nominees are former On Running co-CEO Marc Maurer, former ESPN Chief Marketing Officer Laura Gentile and former Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg.

SoftBank to Buy Data Center Investment Firm DigitalBridge for $4 Billion

SoftBank Group agreed to buy DigitalBridge Group for $4 billion, including debt, part of the Japanese conglomerate's strategy to take advantage of an AI-driven boom in digital infrastructure.

Under the terms of the deal, SoftBank will purchase all of DigitalBridge's outstanding shares for $16 apiece. The price represents a 15% premium to DigitalBridge's closing share price Friday, and a 50% premium to its unaffected 52-week average closing price as of Dec. 4, the companies said Monday.

Shares of DigitalBridge jumped 9.8%, to $15.28, in premarket trading Monday. Through Friday's close, the stock is up almost 25% over the past year.