Vietnam Insight

Gold prices continue to rise as the likelihood of a Fed rate cut remains high. U.S. stock futures were little changed on Monday after Wall Street posted modest gains on the final session of November in thin holiday trading Friday, with traders keeping their focus on upcoming economic data and forecasts of another Fed rate cut. Major indexes logged their best week since June, though the Nasdaq still recorded its first monthly loss since March amid worries over stretched AI and tech valuations, prompting profit-taking. CME derivatives markets reopened after an outage at a key data center, which analysts said further depressed volumes on what was already expected to be one of the quietest sessions of the year. Retail stocks found support as shoppers snapped up Black Friday deals, with the National Retail Federation projecting a record 186.9 million consumers to shop between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Intel jumped 10.2% to lead the S&P 500 on hopes it could supply Apple with processors, while some AI favorites, including Nvidia, faced pressure from intense risks.

Return to the sideways range of 1,600-1,700. VNINDEX closed the last session of the week at 1,690.99 (+6.67 points, +0.40%) with liquidity around the average level of the last 20 sessions. The market had 106 gainers and 185 losers. The stocks that contributed the most to the index's increase were VIC, VPL and VNM; the stocks that hindered the market were VCB, FPT and GEE. Foreign investors net bought VND334 billion. VNM was the net buyer.

Trading Strategy: Investors need to be selective in choosing stocks, as the VNINDEX is being heavily influenced by movements in the VIC group. Medium- and long-term investors can start gradually disbursing into sectors with solid earnings and attractive valuations, such as banking, financial services, and construction materials. Short-term investors can focus on stocks showing improving liquidity and prices, such as utilities, industrial parks, and technology…