12/11 Breakfast

Rate cuts loom
As markets gear up for major central bank meetings this week, starting with the Federal Reserve on Dec.12-13, all eyes will closely watch for any change in the policymakers' tone to predict when rate cuts will begin and by how much. The European Central Bank, Bank of England, Swiss National Bank and Norges Bank will meet on Thursday.

$5.8B buyout
Department store chain Macy's ( $Macy's(M.US)$ ) could be taken private, as the company received a $5.8B buyout offer from a private equity group comprised of Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital, both of whom are shareholders in Macy's. The offer values the retail chain at $21 per share, representing an around 21% premium to its last close, pushing Macy's stock up 19% before the bell on Monday.

New base?
Nvidia ( $NVIDIA(NVDA.US)$ ) wants to set up a production base in Vietnam, its CEO Jensen Huang said during a visit to the country, and plans to deepen its partnerships with local tech firms to support AI advancement. Nvidia, which already invested around $250M in Vietnam, will expand its existing AI partnerships with Vietnamese companies FPT, Viettel, and VinGroup. The partnerships were part of the Biden administration deepening ties with Vietnam in September, as the country looks to expand its tech industry. Vietnamese investment minister Nguyen Chi Dung also called on Nvidia to consider establishing a research and development center in the country.

What else is happening...
$Amazon(AMZN.US)$ files motion to dismiss FTC antitrust case.
New polls differ on holiday consumer spending forecast.
Oppenheimer analysts detail predictions for generative AI. $Microsoft(MSFT.US)$ $Alphabet-A(GOOGL.US)$ $C3.ai(AI.US)$