Ever wake up thinking the market would behave normally, only to find out a data center literally overheated and froze half the futures market? Yeah, welcome to Friday, November 28, 2025.
Some mornings the financial world feels like it runs on caffeine and chaos. Today is definitely one of those. Between a surprise trading disruption, the continuing evolution of Black Friday, and a few companies quietly rewriting the tech rulebook, there’s a lot to unpack before the shortened session kicks off. Let’s dive in.
Five Things Moving Markets Right Now
1. CME Futures Trading Hit by a Literal Cooling Problem
Picture this: it’s pre-market, traders are sipping their third espresso, and suddenly the entire futures complex goes dark. That’s exactly what happened Friday morning when a “cooling issue” at one of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s data centers knocked several key services offline.
Equity index futures, options, even some commodity contracts – everything stopped. Individual stocks kept trading, but the heartbeat of pre-market risk management essentially flatlined for a while. The exchange promised a full reopening by 8:30 a.m. ET, but the episode is another reminder of how fragile the plumbing of modern markets can be.
I’ve been around long enough to remember when a “technical glitch” meant someone’s keyboard stopped working. Now one overheated server room can freeze billions in notional value. Wild times.
2. Black Friday Isn’t Dead – It’s Just Living Online Now
Remember when Black Friday meant camping outside Best Buy at 3 a.m. with a folding chair and a thermos? Those days feel almost nostalgic now.
The numbers tell the real story. For six straight years, online sales have crushed in-store spending on the day after Thanksgiving. Foot traffic? Basically flat since the pandemic. Shoppers have voted with their couches – and their credit cards.
- Average spend this weekend expected around $622 per consumer – down 4% from last year
- Gen Z still shows up strongest for the actual Black Friday deals
- Boomers wait until the last minute (classic)
- Retailers spreading promotions across weeks instead of one chaotic day
Smart move by the stores, honestly. Why fight for one explosive day when you can smooth revenue across November and December? The death of doorbusters has been greatly exaggerated – they’ve just moved to your phone at 2 a.m. instead of a parking lot at midnight.
3. Alphabet Quietly Having a Monster Month
While everyone obsesses over the usual AI suspects, something interesting has been happening under the radar: Alphabet shares are up more than 13% in November alone. That makes it the best-performing megacap tech name this year – closing in on a 70% gain.
The catalysts keep coming. New custom silicon (those Ironwood TPUs), the launch of Gemini 3 getting rave reviews from developers, and a growing sense on Wall Street that Google actually figured out the AI monetization puzzle before most peers.
The lead is real, but it’s measured in months, not years. This race is still anyone’s game.
– A Silicon Valley venture investor who tracks AI infrastructure closely
Fair point. But months matter when the market is pricing in decades of cash flows. Sometimes a narrow lead is all you need.
4. The Tech Rivalries Heating Up Overseas
Two stories caught my eye this week that feel connected by a larger theme: the globalization of the next wave of consumer tech.
First, Alibaba just dropped its first pair of AI-powered smart glasses – direct competition to the Meta-Ray Ban collaboration that’s been selling like crazy. The Chinese giant clearly sees wearable AI as the next battleground after smartphones.
Second, research suggests Apple may ship more phones than Samsung globally this year for the first time since 2010. The iPhone 17 cycle appears to be hitting at exactly the right moment, especially in premium segments across Asia.
Put these together and you see the contours of tomorrow’s tech stack: glasses on your face, phone in your pocket, AI assistant connecting both. The winners won’t just dominate software – they’ll own the hardware interfaces too.
5. K-Beauty Is Eating Traditional Cosmetics’ Lunch
Speaking of global trends sneaking up on established players – have you noticed how much shelf space Korean beauty brands now command at your local Ulta?
The numbers are stunning. U.S. sales of K-beauty products expected to jump more than 37% this year alone, crossing the $2 billion mark. That’s not a niche anymore; that’s a category killer in the making.
What’s fascinating is how this mirrors what happened with Japanese cars in the 1980s or Korean phones in the 2010s. Superior product innovation (those 10-step routines didn’t build themselves) meets aggressive pricing and viral social media marketing. Legacy cosmetic giants are playing defense for the first time in decades.
Even Costco is carrying Korean sheet masks now. When the warehouse clubs show up, you know a trend has gone mainstream.
So where does this leave us heading into a holiday-shortened Friday session that closes at 1 p.m. ET?
The big indexes have enjoyed a nice little bounce this week, but they’re still on track to post their first negative November in years. The Dow and S&P 500 would snap six-month winning streaks – something that hasn’t happened since early 2023.
Does it matter? In the grand scheme, probably not. Markets don’t die from one red month. But sentiment is a fragile thing this time of year, and volume will be light today. That combination can exaggerate moves in either direction.
My take? Use any late-year weakness as a shopping opportunity of your own – just maybe wait until Monday when the adults are back at their desks. The machines tend to overreact when half the human traders are digesting turkey and online shopping regrets.
Either way, strap in. Between technical glitches, shifting consumer habits, and the endless AI chess match, the market never seems to run out of surprises. And honestly? That’s exactly why we keep coming back.
