Weekly Market Commentary: Large Cap Stocks Fall As Key Earnings Reports Disappoint

Sunflower Bank Weekly Market Commentary: December 15, 2025

Each week, our Wealth Management team analyzes the U.S. stock market and bond market activity and news of the previous week, summarizing their findings into a weekly market update report. The key points of this week's commentary, "Large Cap Stocks Fall As Key Earnings Reports Disappoint," include:

• The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 declined last week as risk appetite was tempered by disappointing earnings from leading technology companies late in the week. The S&P 500 fell -0.6% and the Nasdaq 100 declined -1.9% on the week. Most of the selling pressure occurred on Friday, with each of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 declining more than -1% that day.
• The selling pressure on Friday coincided with a disappointing earnings report from Broadcom, a trillion-dollar semiconductor company. Despite beating published consensus, expectations for the stock were high following its strong performance year-to-date (+74% prior to the print), and investors were disappointed by management choosing not to increase its guidance for FY26 or provide color on expected AI growth in the next fiscal year.
• Risk-off sentiment was compounded by a Bloomberg report released Friday morning that Oracle was delaying construction of certain data center projects for OpenAI. The news comes as OpenAI’s ability to fund its projected spending plans has come under increased scrutiny.
• The FOMC voted to reduce the overnight lending rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.50-3.75%, as expected. The Committee’s projections were largely unchanged from the September meeting. Based on the median forecast, members expect one 25-basis point rate cut in 2026. Interest rate futures markets expect two 50-basis point cuts.

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