Good morning, investors. Markets changed tune Tuesday, with stocks rebounding back within 1% of their record highs and bitcoin reversing its sell-off.

Investors’ attention, however, was pulled from Wall Street toward the Oval Office late in the afternoon.

Kevin Hassett is set to succeed Jerome Powell as the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

At least that’s what prediction markets are positioning for and what President Trump conspicuously hinted at late Tuesday.

“I guess a potential Fed Chair is here too,” he said, speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“I don’t know, are we allowed to say that? ‘Potential.’ He’s a respected person, that I can tell you. Thank you, Kevin.”

Hassett is currently the National Economic Council director, and he’s been vocal — like the president — about lowering interest rates this year.

He’s been the front-runner for the top job at the central bank for several months, making Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s shortlist of five finalists that also included:

“I know who I am going to pick,” Trump told reporters three days ago without specifying a name.

Hassett has been the favorite since early October, according to odds on Polymarket.

A week ago, traders assigned roughly 40% odds for his nomination.

After President Trump’s latest comment, those spiked to 86%.

What’s notable about Hassett is that he is a former Coinbase advisor who still reportedly holds a sizable stake in the cryptocurrency exchange.

What does it mean to crypto markets if the most powerful monetary policymaker in the world is a pro-crypto economist?

Hassett may give us an answer soon enough.

President Trump has said that he plans to formally announce who will succeed Powell in early 2026.

While the Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points on December 10, markets will be looking for whether Powell adopts a more dovish or hawkish tone.

That is, whether the rate cut is accompanied by rhetoric around pausing cuts at that level, or signals for further cuts in the new year.

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📈 Vanguard ended its ban on crypto ETFs. The giant asset manager announced it will permit clients to invest in bitcoin and ether via their ETF and mutual funds but not meme coins. That catalyzed a sharp move higher in bitcoin. (Barron’s)

🛍 American consumers showed up big for Black Friday. The shopping turnout for the five-day stretch from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is estimated to be at 202.9 million people — the largest turnout in all the years since 2017 when the data began. (CNBC)

📉OpenAI’s Sam Altman issued a “code red” internally. According to reports, the CEO sent an internal memo announcing a ramp-up in resources to improve ChatGPT in light of intensifying competition from Google and Anthropic. (Yahoo Finance)

💰 Michael and Susan Dell donated $6.25 billion to fund “Trump accounts.” The pledge will seed tax-advantaged investment accounts for children too old to qualify for grants that are set to come from the US Treasury, and could reach as many as 25 million kids. (CNBC)

Veteran strategist Katie Stockton joined me on Full Signal to discuss the bearish shift in markets, key technical indicators, comparisons to the dot-com bubble, seasonality, bitcoin and more.

Tune in on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

🗓 December 3, 1997: South Korea signed a record IMF bailout of $58 billion at the height of the Asian crisis. It marked the largest rescue in history at the time of the deal, and was designed to stabilize a collapsing currency and banking system.

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📰 I’m Phil Rosen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Opening Bell Daily. I’ve published books, lived on three continents, and won awards for my journalism, which has appeared in Business Insider, Fortune, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and Inc. Magazine.

I write our flagship newsletter and host our show, Full Signal, to prepare you for each trading day — unpacking markets, economic data and Wall Street with analysis you won’t find anywhere else.

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