US Stock Market today: The benchmark stock indices on Wall Street opened higher on Friday, 21 November 2025, after New York Federal Reserve (Fed) President John Williams fueled the investors’ rate cut bets for the US economy in the December policy announcement.
New York Fed President John Williams on Friday said that the US Federal Reserve can still cut its benchmark interest rates ‘in the near term’ without putting the inflation in the economy at risk.
“I view monetary policy as being modestly restrictive…Therefore, I still see room for a further adjustment in the near term to the target range for the federal funds rate to move the stance of policy closer to the range of neutral, thereby maintaining the balance between the achievement of our two goals,” said Williams, cited the news agency Reuters.
According to the CME Group’s FedWatch data, the markets are predicting a 73.1% chance of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting its key interest rates by 25 basis points to the range of 3.5 to 3.75% in the upcoming December 2025 policy decision. 26.9% of the market predicts that the rates will remain unchanged at their current level of 3.75 to 4.00% in the upcoming US Fed policy outcome.
Dow Jones Today
At 9:30 a.m. (EDT) opening bell, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.12% to 45,808.65 points, compared to 45,752.26 points at the previous market close. As of 10:39 a.m. (EDT), the index was trading 0.29% higher at 45,884.62 points, according to MarketWatch data.
Sherwin-Williams Co., Home Depot Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Procter & Gamble Co., McDonald’s Corp., Verizon Communications, Visa Inc., Merck & Co. Inc., Amgen Inc., Apple Inc., 3M Co., International Business Machines Corp., Nike Inc., Johnson & Johnson, and American Express Co. were among the top gainers on Friday’s market.
While others like Chevron Corp., Salesforce Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Boeing Co., Microsoft Corp., Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and NVIDIA Corp. were among the losers.
Nasdaq Today
The Nasdaq Composite also opened 0.38% higher to 22,162.834 points on Friday’s Wall Street session, compared to 22,078.05 points at the previous market close, MarketWatch data shows. The index was trading 0.08% higher at 22,085.37 points as of 11:22 a.m. (EDT).
Opthea Ltd. ADR, mF International Ltd, Foxx Development Holdings Inc., Mobile-health Network Solutions, Nuvve Holding Corp., CN Healthy Food Tech Group Corp., Iveda Solutions Inc., Scage Future ADR, Epsium Enterprise Ltd, and Robo.ai Inc., were among the gainers on the index.
Smart Digital Group Ltd, Heartbeam Inc., FAT Brands Inc., Liminatus Pharma Inc., Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc., Skyline Builders Group, Holding Ltd, New Fortress Energy LLC, VisionSys Al Inc. ADR, HeartSciences Inc., and Creative Media & Community Trust Corp. were among the losers.
S&P 500 Today
The S&P 500 index rose 0.26% to open at 6,555.77 points, compared to 6,538.76 points at the previous market close. The index was trading 0.30% higher at 6,560.42 points as of 11:23 a.m. (EDT), according to MarketWatch data.
Ross Stores Inc., D.R. Horton Inc., Cooper Cos., Lennar Corp., PulteGroup Inc., Old Dominion Freight Line, Builders FirstSource Inc., Intuit Inc., HP Inc., and United Parcel Service Inc. were among the top gainers on Friday.
While others like Oracle Corp., Vistra Corp., AppLovin Corp., Copart Inc., CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., Datadog Inc., Constellation Energy Corp., Arista Networks Inc., Seagate Technology Holdings Plc, and Broadcom Inc. were among the losers on S&P 500.
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Key Takeaways
- Wall Street opened higher on 21 November 2025, after New York Fed President John Williams fueled the investors’ rate cut bets.
- Williams said that the US Federal Reserve can still cut its benchmark interest rates ‘in the near term.’
- CME Group’s FedWatch data suggests that there is a 73.1% chance of US Fed cutting its rates by 25 basis points, while a 26.9% chance remains of it being unchanged in December 2025.