Smart Investor: Dividend Stocks for December, How Divided is the Fed and Nvidia Buyers vs. Sellers

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This week’s highlights:

• Weekly Markets Update: Tech Stocks Lead Market Lower, Basic Materials Gain
• Just How Divided Is the Fed?
• Will Interest Rates Fall More in 2026? Our Latest Forecast
• What’s Next for Bitcoin? VanEck’s Sigel on the Crypto Plunge and Outlook
• These Top Stock Pickers Are Buying – or Selling - Nvidia?
• Why Betting Against Nvidia in the AI Arms Race Could Be a Mistake
• 3 Dividend Stocks for December 2025

On the surface, it was a quiet week, with the market edging down just 0.4%. But there was a lot of churn under the hood. Most notably, tech stocks fell, with big names Oracle and Broadcom taking it on the chin after their earnings reports. Meanwhile, value stocks had an up week, as investors rotated into corners of the market that have been lagging this year.

Much attention was on the Federal Reserve, which delivered another quarter-point interest rate cut. Normally, covering the Fed is a pretty dry business, but this year has seen an unusual level of drama. While some of that drama happened outside of monetary policy (remember Trump and Powell in hard hats?), this past week’s FOMC meeting featured greater division about the direction of interest rates. Just how divided is the Fed? Sarah Hansen takes a look.

Drama aside, what’s next for rates as we head into 2026? Ivanna Hampton spoke with Morningstar’s senior US economist Preston Caldwell about his forecast.

In a week when two key stocks in the artificial intelligence trade posted huge losses, the most dominant name, Nvidia, managed to hold its own, only shedding a few percentage points. Thanks to its massive market cap of $4.5 trillion, Nvidia stock is among the largest holdings in many stock funds. Check out our story about which best stock pickers have been buying Nvidia versus who’s been selling.

We also checked in with Morningstar senior equity analyst Brian Colello on what’s next for the AI trade. Brian explains why he thinks investors shouldn’t bet against Nvidia.

There was one notable trade that didn’t pay off in 2025: bitcoin. After a big rally during the spring and summer, the cryptocurrency plunged starting in October, losing around 30% of its value. Leslie Norton spoke with Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, about what sparked the massive decline, along with what he sees as the long-term bull case for crypto.

Lastly, Morningstar Dividend Investor newsletter editor David Harrell offers three dividend stocks for the month, two of which just raised their dividend payouts.

As always, be sure to visit our Markets page for our latest coverage and live stock market updates, along with our full weekly calendar of key upcoming data and events.