Dear Readers,

On Monday, stocks experienced a decline as investors raised concerns about whether the market was becoming overly optimistic, given the five consecutive weeks of gains.

As of 11:57 AM ET, the Dow was down -139.1914 points, or -0.384%, at $36106.31. The Nasdaq Composite lost -215.3633 points, or -1.3462%, at $15782.216. The S&P 500 declined -34.2998 points, or -0.7465%, at $4560.33. Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, 6 showed positive movement, with Financials leading the way with a 2.05% increase.

While stocks remained stagnant, bitcoin and gold saw a surge at the beginning of the week. Bitcoin surpassed the $41,000 mark, achieving a 19-month high, and gold reached its highest intraday level ever.

Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms exhibited strong performances, each recording gains of over 7% and 9%, respectively, in tandem with the rise in bitcoin. Additionally, Coinbase and Microstrategy both saw increases of more than 5%.

These Monday movements reflect a step back after a robust period in the market. Technology shares faced challenges during the session, with Nvidia, Alphabet, and Meta all experiencing declines exceeding 2%.

Top Movers: Under $10

Alterity Therapeutics Ltd ADR (ATHE) is up 116.27% today to trade at the current level of $3.59. This comes after the company reported positive efficacy data for ATH434 in a primate model of Parkinson’s disease.

WiSA Technologies Inc (WISA) zoomed 44.46% in today’s trade to $0.21 after announcing a five-year license of its WiSA E software.

In current trading, Cel-Sci Corp. (CVM) stock is at $2.90 following news that the UK's NICE chose Multikine for evaluation as a potential new standard of care for head and neck cancer.

Absci Corp (ABSI) rose 8.05% in the early hours of today's trading to move at $1.88. The company announced a collaboration with AstraZeneca to deliver an AI-designed antibody against an oncology target.

In the current trading session, Knightscope Inc (KSCP) jumped 14.43% to $0.78 over a previous close of $0.68 after reporting that it has retained attorney Mark R. Basile and his short and distort securities litigation firm, The Basile Law Firm P.C.

Ex-Dividends Stocks

SLB (SLB) is about to trade ex-dividend tomorrow, meaning that investors who buy the stock after tomorrow will not be eligible for the next dividend payment. The company's next dividend payment will be $0.25 per share. The company has fixed December 06 as the record date for the same and will pay the actual dividend on January 11. Last year, the company distributed a total of $0.96 to its shareholders. Based on the last year's worth of payments, SLB has a trailing yield of 1.85% on the current stock price of $51.88.

Another stock that is shelling out dividends tomorrow is NVIDIA Corp (NVDA), having a market capitalization of $1116.27B. It will pay a dividend of $0.04 per share, the payment date of which is December 28. Currently, the stock is trading at a trailing dividend yield of 0.04%.

Shares of Kohl's Corp. (KSS) will be the talk of stock market on Tuesday as the stock will turn ex-dividend. The company's next dividend payment will be $0.5 per share, and in the last 12 months, the company paid a total of $1.80 per share. Last year's total dividend payments show that KSS has a trailing yield of 7.14% on the current share price of $25.19.

Tomorrow, Fastenal Co. (FAST) is also set to go ex-dividend tomorrow. The next dividend payment from FAST will amount to $0.38 per share. December 06 has been designated as the record date for this dividend, with the actual payout scheduled for December 20. In the previous year, FAST distributed a total of $1.38 to its valued shareholders. Considering the cumulative dividend payments from last year, the trailing yield for FAST stands at 2.28% based on the current stock price of $60.65.

Cigna Group (CI) will be paying out a dividend of $1.23 per share to shareholders holding their shares as of the close of the business hours on the record date of December 06. Over the past 12 months, CI has paid out a total of $3.93 per share in dividends. Based on the total dividends paid out last year, CI boasts an impressive trailing yield of 1.49% on the current share price of $263.41.

Crypto Market Highlights

Most Shorted Stocks

Allogene Therapeutics Inc (ALLO) was one of the most shorted stocks as of latest short interest figures, with 30.59% short interest. The days to cover ratio, a measure of how long it would take for all the short positions to be covered based on average trading volume, is 18.9. This represents a change of -1690000 shares, which corresponds to a -4.97% decrease in short interest. The total value of the shares held short is estimated to be around $78.91 million. The average daily volume stands at 1.82M shares, and the market capitalization of the company is $410.33M.

The PureCycle Technologies Inc with the symbol PCT currently has a short interest of 33.2%. The short interest has changed by -67,384 shares. The days to cover ratio stands at 6.29. On an average day, 3.20M shares are traded, with the company's market capitalization totaling $754.68M.

With the symbol CUTR, the stock currently has a short interest of 27.48%. The short interest change is -300000 shares, compared with a short interest percentage change of -5.19%. It would take approximately 5.4 days to cover all the short positions. The company boasts an average daily volume of 1.06M shares, contributing to a market capitalization of $48.06M.

The stock NSTG has a current short interest of 28.91%. The short interest percentage has experienced increase of +2.51% while there was a change of 340000 shares in short interest. The ratio indicating the time required to cover short positions is 6.9. The calculated worth of the shorted shares amounts to around $3.29 million. Trading activity averages at 2.05M shares per day, while the company's market capitalization stands at $28.92M.

Upcoming IPOs

Aimei Health Technology Co., Ltd (AFJK) is all set for its debut on the NASDAQ exchange on December 04. The shares will be offered at a fixed price of $10.00 per share. With a total of 6,000,000 shares available, the company aims to raise approximately $60.00M through this IPO.

Docola, Inc. (DOCO) will be entering the market with its IPO on December 05, on the NASDAQ exchange. They are offering shares in the price range of $5.75 to $6.75. They plan to offer 1,060,870 shares, targeting a deal size of $6.63M.

Lucas GC Limited (LGCL) is also scheduled to make its debut on the NASDAQ exchange on December 08. They are offering shares in the price range of $6.00 to $7.00. The IPO includes 3,070,000 shares, aiming for a deal size of $19.96M.

Planet Image International Limited (YIBO) is set to join the NASDAQ on December 08. They are offering shares in the price range of $4.00 to $5.00. They are offering 1,250,000 shares, with an estimated deal size of $5.63M.

Trident Digital Tech Holdings Ltd (TDTH) is gearing up for its inaugural appearance on the NASDAQ exchange on December 15. The company has fixed the share price at $8.00 - $10.00 per share, and a total of 1,875,000 shares will be made available. With this IPO, Green Energy Innovations aims to generate around $16.88M in funds.