Closing Bell - Closing Bell Overtime: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on New Space Race; Rocket Lab CFO on Stock Surge 12/26/25

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

Michael Farr of Farr Miller & Washington talks the broader investing backdrop. Joe Feldman of Telsey Advisory Group digs into the state of retail and the consumer. Jared Isaacman, the new NASA administrator, on Space Force priorities and the future of U.S. space leadership. Craig Johnson of Piper Sandler breaks down key market technicals, Adam Spice of Rocket Lab on his stock’s meteoric rise and what 2026 has in store for space investors. Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge closes the show with the key catalysts investors should be watching in the week ahead.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, that's the end of regulation. Two charities ringing the closing bells today. The sled at the New York Stock Exchange. And I have the right to doing the honors at the NASDAQ. Stocks, as you just heard Dom mention, fractionally. And I do mean fractionally lower in this Friday after Christmas. A Santa Claus rally pause, if you will, on thin volume. The Dowdown, turning positive with seconds left in the session. We'll see where it settles. It may be just fractionally lower here to close. The S&P 500, very small, loss, the NASDAQ, down about a tenth of a percent, and the Russell 2000 off half a percent. That was the lagger today. The S&P did hit a new record high in trading. For this shortened week, we had gains intact, 1% plus increases for the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ. But the Russell 2000, that lagged. It only finished up about a quarter of a percent. InVIDIA, a winner, as it signs a $20 billion deal with AI chip startup GROC. That's GROC with a Q. We've got more and that coming up. Still, most of the Mag 7 lower today, albeit modest losses. The big action once again in metals. It's been a red-hot year for these commodities. Gold higher by 1%. Another

huge move for silver. Look at platinum. Up 10% all trading at record highs today. Bonso, little changed. The yield on the 10-year note holding steady around 4.14%. Rangebound as of late, but lower than where the year started. That is the scorecard on Wall Street. Welcome to Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan. John Fort is off today. We've got much more coming up on the markets.

We're getting you ready for next week and for next year. But we're also going to focus on an area of the market, which has hit maximum velocity, the space sector. Commercial space stocks, mostly lower today, but huge one-month gains, even bigger gains for many of these names for the year. Brand new NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, will join me. President sweeping recent executive order making space a priority, helping to sustain those recent gains. But let's start with today's trading in NVIDIA's $20 billion deal. For more on what

they're getting for their money, let's bring in Steve Kovac. And Steve, this certainly seems like a partnership coupled with an aqua hire. Thoughts? Yeah, sort of. They call it a licensing deal, but we all know what's really going on here. Look, Nvidia shares, they are rising today as momentum continues from its big move earlier this week. Our David Faber was the first report that one, that the chip giant, they agreed Wednesday to buy assets from GROC. That's with the Q, like you said, a designer of high-performance AI accelerator chips. Now, the deal is for a reported $20 billion in cash and includes a non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA for GROC's inference technology.

Also, as part of the deal, GROC's founder and the company's president will join NVIDIA. Not much of a licensing deal there. Now, the chip market, as a whole, rising on that news with the SMH semiconductor. ETF, seeing a spike around that NVIDIA news. Now let's move over to media, both WBD and Paramount Skydance. They're down today as that deal remains at arm's length heading into the new year. Paramount, of course, altered its offer on Monday with a personal guarantee from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, backstopping $40.4 billion in equity funding for that deal.

And now over to Korean e-commerce company Koupeng, they rallied 8% after the company said the perpetrator of a cybersecurity incident had been identified. The company added that leaked data pertained to only 3,000 accounts and was limited. Morgan, send it back over to you. Yeah, you know, Steve, I just want to go back to this GROC deal partnership, whatever you want to call it here, because you're talking about, when you talk about an aqua hire here, I'll use the phrase, even if NVIDIA isn't.

I mean, you're talking about one of the chief architects for TPUs, and we know what that technology, that capability has meant for Alphabet here just in the last couple of weeks, last couple of months. So it raises the question how much of what we're seeing with the spend that's maybe not on infrastructure per se, but is happening in AI personality driven? Yeah, and we've seen this. By the way, Microsoft is really the one who kind of put forward this kind of idea that instead of buying a company straight out, let's go in and take some of the founders and things like that. We've seen this play out so many times, Morgan, over the last several months, especially over the summer with meta really buying out many companies like that. in order to get what they're going on here. And look, this allows them to avoid scrutiny.

They can also bring in that talent a lot faster than they would going through a one or two-year acquisition process. I will say that we were talking about this earlier today, that Invidia and Jensen Wong, the CEO of Nvidia, he basically lives at the White House these days. He has a very cozy relationship with the president. So you would have to imagine if he did want to go through with this acquisition in a more traditional way. There wouldn't be too many barriers to that, at least. And I can guarantee you, though, regulators have been poking around these kind of deals, Morgan. So just because they've been going through doesn't mean there will be some kind of backtracking down the road.

Yeah, it's been interesting to see some of these deals come together, if you will. I mean, I think about Meadow with Scale AI and Alex Wang earlier this year too. Steve Kovac, thank you. Now to the broader markets and what to expect in 2026. Well, our next guest says a pullback is overdue. But earnings growth is strong enough to make any downturn a small. one. Joining me now, Michael Farr, he is Hightower Chief Market Strategist, founder of Farr-Miller in Washington, a CNBC contributor. Michael, it's great to have you back on the show, and let's

start right there. Why do you think a pullback is due here? And what would that mean as an investor looking at that? Morgan, it's great to be here. Merry Christmas, happy New Year. Happy holidays to everybody. You know, the biggest reason for a pullback, in my opinion, is all of this white hair that I have. They just happen. I've seen too many of them over a long period of time. We haven't had one for a while. We've had three straight years up in the market.

A pullback would be normal. You typically gets a case of the nerves in February. Most years, you get through earnings season. You hear about it in January. That's enough headlines to keep markets up. And then you hit that daldrum in February. The days are colder, a little bit darker, and people tend to sell more. So we're due.

But I don't see it as ending this trend. The economy's still fine. is economy still growing? The Fed is still paying close attention and probably easing a little more than they should. There's plenty of liquidity in the banking system. It feels like the path of least resistance over the longer term continues to be up. Yeah, so many strategists on Wall Street or Bush going into next year. I mean, we're about to finish with nearly 8%, 18% gains for the S&P for 2025, third straight year of double-digit percentage gains for the S&P. How unusual would it be to see those types of gains again next year, some strategists are calling for.

It's been unusual for the last three years, but unusual things happen and they can continue to happen. And, you know, here are the scary words, Morgan, because what we're seeing is a little bit different, right? It's different to have AI. We've been through these tech booms before. And my recent note to our investors, I said, listen, I was at my desk in 1996 when Greenspan irrational exuberance. The markets had just doubled. He said, this is silly. It was the dot-com rage. Markets went up for three more years after the Fed chairman said, this is silly. He wasn't wrong. He just got the timing wrong. It was kind of silly in terms of valuations. They continue to go up. So this sort of thing can last a long time. Expensive can become more

expensive. They've done it three years in a row. Could they do it for? Maybe the safest thing to do at the beginning of every year is to go with that long-term average. Give it 10%, maybe another 10%, I don't think anybody to be upset if we got another 10% in 2026. Yeah, I should think so. Is the market broadening here, and does that have legs? Here's why I ask, if you look at what the top performing sectors in the S&P have been over the past month, it's been financials, materials, consumer discretionary, but then industrials. It's been more of these cyclical type stocks. It has been the cyclical stocks. The market was criticized for most of the year because it's been so narrow with the Mag 7 and the AI trade and everything's got to be.

But that's broadened out here in the last quarter. We've gone from a big concentration, 38% of the S&P down to 35% now of the S&P is in those names, which means some of the other stocks have done better. And the economic environment, I think, is reasonably good for that broadening out to continue. It's a very healthy sign for the markets, and it's very healthy for some of these larger, crazy, successful stocks that have gone up so much to also have a bit of a pause and give investors a chance to reallocate money and also diversify away from some of those riskier stocks. So when you talk about diversifying, you like some of the health care names. What are they? I like a lot in health care right now. The demographic continues to support those sales. continue to like the GLP-1 drugs. Eli Lilly's been a terrific stock for the last three years.

That GLP-1, Manjaro, and now that they are not ready, but almost ready to come forward with a pill, every time you hear about these drugs, they're just curing something else, Morgan. I mean, you know, itchy skin, flat feet, whatever you've got wrong, it feels like these drugs are going to somehow cure you. Novo Nordisk is one I was talking about before. It really hasn't participated, It's, in fact, it's down a lot. They announced that they've got a pill coming out to treat not only obesity, but high A1C sugar numbers and a bunch of other stuff. I think that these things continue. I think that the productivity numbers that's going to be garnered by a healthier society are going to be terrific.

So I expect these things will drive GDP growth. They are that important and really can't be ignored. All right. Michael Farr. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy Boxing Day. Happy New Year. It's great to have you on.

Thanks, Morgan. With all the major averages fractionally lower right now, the Dow Industrials, down 20 points today. Now let's drill down on retail. This week, we saw a strong holiday spending leading up to Christmas. Both MasterCard and Visa reporting 4% increases in spending versus this time last year, but who will come out on top? And where should you look to for 2026? Well, joining us now is Joseph Feldman from Tulsi Advisory Group. It's great to have you on. Let's start right there. What do you like looking at next year?

We really like Walmart heading in this next year. Walmart, Costco, Amazon are all names that offer a lot of value to the consumer. It's a place where you can save money. And they also do have a discretionary element to their business. So in addition to being a core everyday essentials at very low prices, you can also get some of your discretionary assortment as well. It feels like those companies have had a pretty good holiday season. We think they're going to be among the winners. And we think that's going to continue into next year, just given the setup of the way the economy is looking for the first half. You know, it's amazing to me to see us ending this year with some of the, you know, the inexpensive retailers, if you will, five below dollar tree, et cetera, having such strong gains, at least in the stocks, especially when we started the year talking about tariffs and China turmoil.

Yeah, no, the value plays really work quite well. the dollar stores, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Five Below, all have done very well. We think Five Below had a very good holiday season, and that's going to also continue into next year. As will Dollar Tree and Dollar General, I mean, all set up to have good years, just given that they offer such tremendous value to the consumer. They have everyday low prices, and it's a place for the consumer to really go and save some money and stretch their wallets, right?

When you're on a tight budget and you have a few bucks in your wallet, you can go to a dollar tree and really get, you know, good values spread across the store. Yeah, we've seen some of these retail rebounds as well, Gap, American Eagle, Coles, even Macy's had a strong year. I guess looking to 2026, are there other names that are primed for a rebound here? You know, one that we really like is Best Buy. Best Buy has done a little underperformed this year. We think they're going to have some upside next year. You have a replacement cycle going on where like five, six years removed from the pandemic. and there was a lot of consumer electronics buying early in that pandemic.

Those are going to start to need to be replaced. At the same time, we have an upgrade cycle going on because with generative AI and all the capabilities that are being brought into your devices, you need more horsepower, more computing power, those better chips. So we think that that's going to help drive sales for Best Buy. We've seen it in computing,

and we think that's going to spread to other categories within the store. It's relatively inexpensive stock, trading it like 10, 12 times. What's old is new again. Joseph Feldman, thank you. Happy new year. You too. Coming up on overtime, as markets move higher in December, it's been the financial

sector leading the way, even outperforming materials, despite a huge run in metals. Better than discretionary, as the consumer remains strong. We're going to look at some of the names driving that outperformance. And an even hotter trade right now, space stocks. Look at those huge returns, Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, Firefly, aerospace. I can go on down the list here. That's just in the past month. Brand new NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, will join me on the other side of this break to talk space. Overtime is back in two. Welcome back to overtime. Financial stocks

continuing their strong run as of late. Some familiar names, again, making all-time highs in trading today before giving back some of those games. J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley. It's not just the big banks either, though. Nasdaq, the company hitting a record high, well as Charles Schwab. Well, we're also watching commercial space stocks, which saw some profit taking today, that after some huge gains over the past few months, Global Star, Planet Labs, Rocket Lab, AST space mobile, all up at least 50%. And two to machines is another one in that time. This as spending on space grows in government budgets, policy prioritizes more commercial space engagement, and as we have a possible SpaceX IPO on board for next year, which is boosting

investor sentiment for the sector overall. Joining us now, Jared Isaacman, the new NASA administrator. He was confirmed late last week after being re-nominated in November. And Administrator Isaacman, I have been looking forward to having this conversation with you for the better part of a year. So welcome. And it's great to welcome you as the new administrator of NASA. Oh, thanks for having me, Morgan. And I hope you and your family had a wonderful time over the holidays. Merry Christmas. You too. Okay, you hit the ground running. You were confirmed last week, same day, the president signs the sweeping executive order regarding space. So how does that now lay out the roadmap for NASA moving forward?

Yeah, well, I'll tell you, what an exciting start as administrator of NASA. I mean, it's been a week. We've been going near 24-7, and we have the president's national space policy as guidance. I think it's probably the most significant commitment to American leadership in space since the Kennedy era, reaffirms our commitment to return to the moon, and establish the end. infrastructure so that we can maintain an enduring presence, basically saying, let's build the moon base, and then from there we're going to start making investments in nuclear power in space, nuclear propulsion, so we can make that next giant leap in human space exploration and discovery.

So extraordinarily exciting time right now at NASA. Yeah. Why is the moon so important, and why is it so important to start building out infrastructure there to basically stay there? It's a really good question. First, I'd say it's fulfilling a promise that presidents have made for 35 years. The American taxpayers have spent over $100 billion to enable America's return to the moon. The president appreciated this position during his first term when he created the Artemis program and said America should return to the moon and then again recommitted us to it now, which we will achieve during his term. And then, of course, establishing the infrastructure

so when we get there, we can stay. And why is that important? Because we want to have that opportunity to explore and realize the scientific, economic, and national security potential on the moon. We haven't been there in an awful long time. There are certainly a lot of applications. You reference leading up to the show, the commercial space industry. You have commercial space companies looking to mine on the moon, potentially extract helium-3. It could be a more efficient source of fusion power someday in the future. This is something we don't want to get wrong. Yeah. So all of this raises the questions. Does the NASA budget enable this? And how is partnering and maybe perhaps thinking differently about contracting with commercial space

companies going to enable this? Well, I think the taxpayers in trust NASA with an extraordinary budget. In fact, even if you look at the continuing resolution that we've been operating under this year, plus the investments authorized under the Working Family Tax Credit Act, formerly known as the one big beautiful bill, NASA has a substantial budget available. I mean, you know, even if you adjust for inflation, NASA's annual budget is comparable to what, you know, the country spent during the entirety of the Manhattan Project. We can do some pretty extraordinary things, you know, with those resources that are available. I think we can return to the moon. We can establish

the infrastructure there. We can make investments into the next giant leap capabilities like nuclear. And we can make investments into our, into our science portfolio as well, so we can endeavor to unlock the secrets of the universe. I've heard this framed as a space race against China, which is also looking to put boots on the moon, I think, by the end of this decade. But Tori Bruno, who up until just a couple of days ago, was running United Launch Alliance, said to me, and is now going to be president at Blue Origin, said to me earlier this month, he thinks we're actually in a cold war and people just don't even realize it yet. How do you see this?

Well, I think that the president certainly appreciates the importance, the national security importance of space. I mean, he created the space force during his first term. The high ground has always mattered, you know, since the beginning of human history. And space is no different in that. It's the ever-expanding high ground. What was important to us in low Earth orbit decades ago has moved to medium orbit, higher Earth orbit, and now to the moon and beyond.

So I think it's vitally important. Competition is a good thing, by the way. You know, it's a good thing amongst our various commercial partners and our international partners that are contributing this grand endeavor. When we go to the moon, we never go alone. But it's also, I think, important from a geopolitical perspective. America needs to return to the moon. We need to establish the infrastructure there, and then we need to set our sites even higher.

Speaking of competition, and I realize we've got Artemis II coming in the coming weeks or coming months here, and then Artemis 3 behind it by 2008. But longer term, what does it mean for things like Boeing's SLS rocket and Lockheed Martin-made Orion Space Capsule? Well, I'd say first and foremost, you know, the SLS architecture that supports Arkansas. Artemis, you know, is authorized through Artemis 5, again, under the Working Family Tax Credit Act, the one big, beautiful bill. So we've got our architecture to get us around the moon, which will be coming in the very near future. I mean, we're talking weeks, months away under the Artemis 2 program. We are going to follow that up with Artemis 3, where American astronauts will return to the surface of the moon,

and then we have additional vehicles thereafter. Now, in order to actually land astronauts on the moon, it means our partners along the way, our commercial partners, SpaceX and Blue Origin are the two that are under contract will have perfected rapid reusability of heavy lift launch vehicles on orbit cryogenic prop transfer and that's going to be a game changer. That's what's going to enable us to be able to go to and from the moon affordably with great frequency and set up for missions to Mars and beyond. So we've got a great lineup of vendors right now that are critical to achieving our near-term objectives. And then we have commercial space industry that's going to be able to partner with us as we make our operations.

to and from the moon routine. Yeah. Speaking of competition, is there enough competition right now ready to go in launch? Oh, this is, it's a great question. This is the healthiest launch market we've ever seen in the history of America's space program. You know, a lot of people certainly talk about SpaceX, which they've done absolutely extraordinary things with the reusability they've been demonstrating almost 500 times over the last 10 years.

But yeah, Blue Origin that just had a very successful new Glenn launch where they were able to recover their heavy lift launch booster. You've got companies like Stoke that are investing in rapid reusability, rocket lab, firefly. I mean, these were names that were on your board not that long ago. Of course, you still have, you know, you have the ULA that's contributing in this. So this is the most competitive, healthiest launch industry we've had, which is key for America's exploration objectives in space. It's key to unlocking the orbital economy. And it's key to increasing the rate of world-changing discovery, getting more scientific missions out there. Moon, Mars, planetary science, heliophysics, studying the sun, Earth observation.

I mean, low-cost launch in a competitive environment is key to enabling the entire NASA mission. Yeah, speaking of SpaceX, we've got a possible IPO, history-making IPO in the cards for next year, possibly. As someone who not only flew two historic space missions with SpaceX as a private citizen in the past, but who is, I assume, as NASA administrator, also tracking all the private capital coming into this sector, How do you see that milestone? There's a lot we can talk about here. First and foremost, you know, NASA achieved some extraordinary things during the 1960s. We sent American astronauts to the moon.

We brought them back safely in a time when we knew very little about space. It was not inexpensive. You know, NASA's discretionary, you know, received four and a half percent of the discretionary budget in the 1960s. We're a fraction of that now today, but we're still able to do incredible things because we have partners out there. they're investing substantial amount of their either personal resources or private capital into capabilities for the benefit of certainly the competitiveness of the nation, but for people the world over. So we're very grateful for what SpaceX is able to do, the resources they're putting into Starship program, what Jeff Bezos and the Blue Origin team are putting into

New Glenn. It's an exciting time because we have folks other than the taxpayers contributing to NASA's extraordinary objectives across the last front of. What are your thoughts on data centers in space, especially given the fact that we've seen the commercialization of low Earth orbit in part from previous NASA policy? Okay, so I love this. Establishing an orbital economy is key. You know, I've had a chance to be with President Trump many times. This is captured in the national space policy.

We're completely aligned around this. Number one priority, American leadership in the high ground of space. We've got to return to the moon, establishing enduring presence, realize scientific, economic, and national security value. We've got to make investments in nuclear spaceships, bring nuclear power to space, so we can set up for that next giant leap to Mars and beyond. Number two, we need the orbital economy. And that's specifically called out in the national space policy.

We all envision a future someday with lots of space stations and mining and commercial operations on the moon and outpost on Mars. It's not going to happen if it's perpetually funded by the taxpayers. We need to unlock that orbital economy, whether it's data centers in space, if it's biotech or cancer-treating drug formulations, or mining helium-3 on the moon. Whatever it is, we need it. That's what's going to fund that exciting future. And number three, increase the rate of world-changing discoveries. We all love Hubble and James Webb Telescope and Rovers on Mars.

We just need a lot more of them with greater frequency so we can unlock the secrets of the universe. So in light of all, what are you most excited about as administrator of NASA? I mean, what's there not to be excited about? I'll tell you, coming up, we're sending American astronauts around the moon this first time we've done that in a half century. We just had a crew in the loop test down at Kennedy Space Center. So we actually took the crew for Artemis 2. We put them in the Orion spacecraft on top of the SLS vehicle. They were able to do a number of tests, com checks, eclos life support checks.

Point is we're getting ready. The next time we do that test is when Artemis 2 is going to be out on the pad in just a matter of weeks. And we're weeks away, potentially a month or two away at most from sending American astronauts around the moon again. All right. Finally, I got to ask you about something that's been a controversy percolating in Washington and elsewhere for a couple, at least a couple of months now. And that is this Discovery Shuttle controversy and the relocation of that spacecraft. Your thoughts? Okay. This is one. And certainly the space community has been following very closely. Well, first, let's go back to the Working Family Tax Credit Act, formerly known as a one big, beautiful bill. A massive investment that went into America's human spaceflight program. Authorizations through the Artemis five mission plus up funding for our human space flight operations at the International Space Station. And then there was also an allocation to return a historic spacecraft to Johnson Space Center in Houston. That's our Human Space Flight Center of Excellence in Texas. My predecessor

has already selected a vehicle, the former acting administrator. My job now is to make sure that we can do, we can, we can undertake such a transportation within the, within the budget dollars that we have available, and of course, most importantly, ensuring the safety of the vehicle. And if we can't do that, you know what? We've got spacecraft that are going around the moon with Artemis 2, 3, 4, and 5. One way or another, we're going to make sure the Johnson Space Center gets their historic spacecraft right where it belongs. All right. Jared Isaacman, Administrator of NASA. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me, Morgan. Appreciate it.

Well, we're going to dig more into the commercial space sector. and soaring investor optimism with Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice. That is coming up later this hour. Those shares are of 67% in December, more than 175% this year. We're doing a lot on space here this hour. You don't want to miss it. That's coming up. Welcome back to overtime.

Stocks today, basically flat. The Dow, S&P, and NASDAQ, all down, but all three were down less than one-tenth of a percent. That's enough to break a five-session winning streak, though. With three trading days left in 2025, let's look at where we stand for 2025. The Dow up 14 percent, nearly 18 percent for the S&P 500. The NASDAQ up 22 percent. And it's time now for CNBC News update. For that, we turn to McKenzie Sagalos.

Hi, Mack. Hey, Morgan. President Trump is planning to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky this Sunday in Florida. And in an interview today with Politico, he was less enthusiastic than the Ukrainian leader who said earlier that negotiators were 90 percent there on a 20-point. peace plan proposal. Mr. Trump said Zelensky, quote, doesn't have anything until I approve it. And airlines have canceled more than 1,400 U.S. flights today already, as a winter storm warning is in effect in New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island. The National Weather Service says

many areas could see as much as nine inches of snow. According to an industry trade group, airlines are expected to transport more than 52 million people during this year's holiday travel period. And after 47 drawings, there is finally a Powerball winner, the $1.8 billion winning ticket was purchased at a gas station outside Little Rock, Arkansas. The Christmas Eve drawing was the second biggest in history and the largest one this year. The winner's identity remains unknown. Arkansas state law allows the winners of more than $500,000 to stay anonymous for three years. Morgan, back to you. All right, Mackenzie Sagalos, thank you. I wonder who they are. Another big day were medals,

gold's closing at a record high for the 54th time this year. But silver, that's been the real winter up more than 150% in 2025. Can the medals keep shining into 2026? That is a key question. We're going to try and answer it on overtime. Welcome back. The S&P 500 closed out the day with a teeny tiny loss. That's despite hitting record highs earlier in the trading session. Still a 1% gain for the week, though. So is the Santa Claus rally still intact as we head into the year's final three trading sessions? Let's ask Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler. Craig, It's great to have you on. What are what are the charts showing us about the SPX here? Thanks, Morgan. What the charts are showing us about the SPX is that the bull market is still intact. And the Santa Claus rally seems to be on track at this point in time. Keep in mind that the Santa Claus rally is usually the last, you know, five trading days of the year, first two trading days of the new year. And at this point in time, we're still in a setup for a positive return for the Santa Claus rally. We've had 39 new highs. We didn't quite make the 40th this, today's trading session. But there's still more.

more room for this market to continue to keep working from the upside. But Morgan, I got to tell you, it's probably a bull market with a lowercase B, not a capital B as you head into 2026. Huh. Okay. Dr. Copper, what are you seeing in that chart right now? Chart of copper looks fantastic. And out of all the metals, we think that copper is more attractive set up on the charts. We're in this nice upward trending channel. We're not overextended. Momentum is still in check at this point in time. And it looks like copper is ready to have a another leg higher. In fact, when you look at the charts in here, Morgan, there could be another you know, six, seven percent higher just to get to the upper end of that trading range for

copper. And that is, again, our favorite metal for 2026. How about gold? Because I know you're also tracking the gold miners ETF here. And we've had a crazy year for gold and silver also. Gold, silver has been fantastic. In fact, Morgan, the basic materials sector has actually been the best performing sector year to date. And a lot of that, that has been driven by gold, it's been driven by silver. And we look at the chart of the GDX. There's about 17% more upside to reach sort of a measured objective there. So gold can likely continue to keep working.

It is kind of odd, Morgan, to have gold working, equity markets working. Usually one tends to be more defensive. And you don't usually see gold and equities typically moving at the same point in time. But right now they are, and it looks constructive. Interesting. How much of that also hinges on the facts that the dollar has weakened against other major currencies, dollar index is, I think, on pace for its worst year since 2017. That is indeed the case.

And I think it's also just central governments around the world choosing to want to buy gold, buy silver versus owning treasuries. Biotech. What do you think? Biotech is still another fantastic area. If we're going to get a couple of rate cuts in 2026, biotech will likely continue to keep working. If you just pull up the chart of the XBI, you can see that it's very nice setup. on the XBI. It's broken out the new highs. Again, it looks like there could be a whole other leg higher here for the XBI. Drilling down into some of the constituents inside of that index,

you can look at Xylyxus, you can look at Regeneron, Travera. These are all names that all look constructive on the charts below the surface. And XBI is probably going to be a surprise for a lot of investors next year. That could be the new beta trade next year. As a lot of people already into the AI trade, biotech might be a new carry-on trade for a lot. of beta momentum investors. All right. Maybe we see the uppercase B there then. Craig Johnson. Thank you. Thank you, Morgan. Rocket Lab stock has taken off like, well, a rocket ship. RKLB, it's up almost 180% this year. Next, we're going to talk to the company's CFO, Adam Spice. Stay with us. Welcome back to overtime. We mentioned earlier in the show, but investors have been bidding up

commercial space stocks in recent months. Rocket Lab in particular, soaring, boosted by recent successful launches, including the two you see right there on your screen, December 17th for the U.S. Space Force and last Sunday for a Japan-based imaging company, investors also cheering a major contract awarded to Rocket Lab to the tune of $816 million from the Space Force. It's the company's largest ever. The stock has been soaring. It's up nearly 70% in the past month, up over 175% for the year. Joining us now in an exclusive interview is Adam Spice, Rocket Lab CFO. Adam, welcome to the show. great. Thanks, Morgan. Thanks for having me. It was a big year for Rocket Lab. Certainly, you broke

records with your launch cadence this year. How does all of this set you up for 2026? I think it sets us up really well for 2026. I mean, 2025 is a great year. We targeted launching 21 times this year, and we managed to achieve that with 100% mission success. So I think we've got great momentum with our customers. They love working with Rocket Lab, and they just seem to want more and more of what we have to offer. Is neutron still set to come online in the first half of 2026? And if so, what does that unlock in terms of more potential for rocket labs? Neutron is an incredibly important thing for us.

And yes, we're maintaining our first half of a 2026 schedule. As we talked about on our last earnings call, you know, the more tactical goal here is to get the rocket to the pad in Q1. And then after that, get all the checkouts done is, you know, assuming that everything, you know, checks out and goes well, you know, which again is a rocket program, so you can never count on everything going perfectly well. But, again, our plans right now have us getting a rocket to the pad at the end of Q1 or in Q1 and then hopefully getting a launch off shortly thereafter. Yeah, and I just referenced it before, the Space Development Agency Tronch 3 tracking layer award. You're one of four companies that was awarded a chunk of change for this.

How meaningful is it for a rocket lab? And specifically for your other business, which is the space systems business, which is building all kinds of spacecraft for on orbit. experiences. Yeah, no, this contract was a huge thing for us. I think it just cements us as a very strategic partner with our U.S. government customers. And I think we felt incredibly honored to be included in the group of other awardees for this tranche three tracking layer. You know, this was one of those where you really didn't see any, I would say, up-and-comers or kind of new entrants to the field. This was really the established players,

if you look at the other awardees in L3, Harris, Lockheed, and Northrop, and Grumman. So to have Rocket Lab included, that really is a huge endorsement for us. I think a good harbinger of things to come. And it's all about building this end-to-end space vision that really is our goal, which is, you know, we started off in the market with a small dedicated launcher that's become incredibly efficient and a great value add to the market. Then we started putting together all the pieces to build a space systems platform, which ultimately will drive us to having, you know, our own applications on orbit.

But really what this does is it really continues to kind of expand, you know, what is already two-thirds of our business today is space systems. A lot of people think of us as a rocket company, and that's completely understandable because, you know, when you showed those two launches at the beginning of the clip, you know, I never get tired. I don't think a lot of people get tired watching a rocket launch. But at the end of the day, the space systems business is, you know, a much larger opportunity for us.

Now, Neutron actually helps balance that back out. It helps open up a much, much larger Tam where we'll have, you know, Neutron competing head-to-head with Falcon 9 in that medium-lift launch category. Yeah. I would say it should be on everybody's bucket. list to go see at least one rocket rocket launch in their lifetimes. We're just talking about it with the NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, but data centers in space, is there an opportunity here for Rocket Lab? Well, you know, we're strong believers in the people that, you know,

that control access to space will have a great ability to influence what goes on in orbit, obviously. So, you know, if, I think it's a little early days, I think people are getting very excited about this, and there's some very credible people talking about data centers in space. And so, you know, But if you think about what's great for a business like ours, it's if you've got to put, you know, a lot of mass on orbit in a quick time frame and a very cost-effective way, you know, owning that launch vehicle and owning the end-to-end ability to build spacecraft and have space heritage, it's absolutely key. So, you know, I'm very hopeful that this ends up being a very meaningful strategic opportunity. If it is, we will be in a great position to exploit it. Okay. I've been talking about this all year.

I've been asking companies space and defense companies all year about it. I'm going to ask you again right now. And that is Golden Dome Contract Awards. You think we're going to start to see a flurry of those come out. sometime soon? You know, I think we will. We're already seeing a lot of activity going on in the background. So I think, you know, it just, it's a pretty bold set of initiatives that have come out. And I think, you know, it took a while for, you know, the people that were responsible for developing those longer-term strategies to really kind of pull everything together and put a bow on it.

But I think we're very close. And again, we're very excited about it. We think it could be a huge set of new opportunities. And so, yeah, I think we should start seeing more activity in the new year. And we're very much looking forward to that. And of course, we're seeing some spending on space increase, not just here in the U.S., but internationally as well. So what do those opportunities look like for the company, especially as you have been acquisitive? Yeah, you know, I think that is actually one of the probably most underappreciated growth opportunities in this market.

You know, when I look back and see how space spending has been over the last few decades, and, you know, a vast majority of the spend was concentrated in the United States and with the United States government, I think with some of the changes now that you see in geopolitics, I think that really could usher in a era and, you know, and, you know, era of, I would say, a more prolific spend, in some ways less efficient because now you're having people do the same thing in multiple, you know, geographies. But I think for somebody who sells the picks and troubles to those people, I think it's a great opportunity for us. So I do think that's, again, one of the areas where, you know, I think investors probably haven't really kind

of caught on to what that could look like over the course and say the next 10 years. But I think it's a very big, underestimated future growth leg for people who are well positioned to exploit it. Okay. Adam Spice, CFO of Rocket Lab. Thanks for joining me. Thank you. Well, for more on all things, space, in case you haven't had enough this hour, be sure to check out my podcast, Manifest Space. Today's episode features Hawkeye 360 CEO and founder John Serafini. We talked to the companies about the company's latest acquisition, tracking dark vessels around the globe, and the road to a potential IPO for that name as well. Could be a very busy 2026 for defense tech and commercial space. Coming up, Will San Francisco. Santa Claus once again deliver a year-end rally to Wall Street. We're going to get you set with everything you need to know for the final trading days of 2025 and beyond.

Overtime, we'll be right back. Welcome back to overtime. Check out shares of Target. Those were higher by 3% today, though on a very quiet, slightly down day, but it makes it the best performer in the S&P 500 today. Financial Times reporting activist investor Tom's Capital is reportedly building a stake in Target, and that could push for changes. Though target stock has rebounded recently in general, it's still down 27% this year, drastically underperforming its main rival, Walmart.

Well, coming up, we're going to get you set up for the final three trading days of 2025. And don't forget, you can catch us on the go by following the closing about Overtime podcast on your favorite podcast app. Stay with us. Welcome back to Overtime. Next week will be another holiday shortened to Trading Week.

stock exchanges closed Thursday for New Year's. But it will be a full session Wednesday, a.k.a. New Year's Eve. Still, the news flows in so quiet. We will be getting fed minutes on Tuesday. There are lots of geopolitical headlines that can move the markets as well. So joining us now with more on what to watch is Adam Chrisafouli, founder and president of vital knowledge. Adam, it's great to have you on. What are you watching? Yes, like you said, there's not a whole lot on the calendar that's scheduled. I would say two events are going to be interesting, one of which takes place this Sunday at Marlago. This would be the Trump-Zulunsky meeting.

I think the fact that the meetings even been scheduled suggests that there has been progress on a U.S.-Ukraine compromise deal. But remember, the key has really been getting all the major principles. So that's the U.S., Ukraine, the EU, and Russia all on board. And that's been a struggle now for the last several years. And I don't anticipate this really changing.

But it does look like the U.S. and Ukraine will reach some type of a compromise. And then the question is, how does Russia respond to it? And then, like you said, on Tuesday, Fed minutes, you know, are going to be watched relatively closely. They're likely to have somewhat of a hawkish bias, but given that to markets pushed out the timing for the next cut to around April, you know, there shouldn't be a massive fallout from that.

I do wonder in the absence of more macro data and obviously no earnings and thin trading volumes over the coming days here, Adam, whether geopolitics has the ability to have outsized moves on this market. Yes, Ukraine, peace talks and meeting between the two presidents. on Sunday. But then on the flip side, you see these ISIS strikes by the U.S. with Nigeria in that country overnight last night. We've seen the blockade with Venezuelan oil tankers and the chase for some of these tankers and seizures in the Caribbean right now. And then, of course, you have Israel's Netanyahu expect to meet with President Trump on Monday amid talks and speculation that

Israel could be building a case for more strikes in Iran. Yeah, you know, all great points. There are kind of multiple theaters now in the world. where you are seeing geopolitical issues kind of bubble to the surface, you know, oil is usually the transmission mechanism through which these types of events impact equities. You saw today, oil suffered a relatively large decline. And the implications for the broader market are kind of mixed. On the one hand, that is deflationary, it does provide a tailwind to the consumer. You know, it is obviously a negative for energy stock. So I think markets are kind of looking at oil for now and confining the fallout energy equities rather than a broader macro topic that can kind of impact. back the entire S&P, but if one of these were to really escalate dramatically, that would obviously change. Yeah. How does all of this set us up for 2026? You know, so geopolitics is going to be, you know, it's going to be kind of in the background. You know, it's been in the background for the last couple of years at this point. I think really the two dominant themes are going to be AI and then the Fed, the trajectory of Fed policy and also Fed stepping. You know, we're still waiting

to see who Trump will nominate your place Powell. You know, I've been talking about you got kind of these two big LLM launches that come out in Q1, they're going to be very important for the trajectory of the AI narrative. You've had this kind of fracturing of the industry between Google versus opening eyes. So I think AI and the Fed can be the dominant themes. Okay, Adam Chris Foley. Thank you. Happy New Year. That does it for us at overtime.