Investors are filled with the holiday spirit

This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

New highs for S&P and Nasdaq
U.S. markets were mixed on Monday. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite climbed to new highs, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 0.66%, bouncing back from an earlier decline. Shares of Stellantis fell 6.3% after CEO Carlos Tavares resigned on Sunday amid “different views” with the board.

Intel CEO ousted
Intel ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger over the weekend. The decision, made public Monday, was motivated by the board’s lack of confidence in Gelsinger’s plans, said a source. Replacing him as interim co-CEOs are CFO David Zinsner and products CEO MJ Holthaus. Gelsinger was named CEO in 2021, but couldn’t turnaround the struggling company.

$56 billion package for Musk denied
Tesla CEO Elon Musk failed to get his $56 billion 2018 pay package reinstated. A Delaware judge upheld her prior ruling that the compensation plan was improperly granted. Tesla shareholders had voted in June to “ratify” the package. The judge, however, wrote in her opinion that “Even if a shareholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here.”

Crypto laws to pass ‘quickly’ in U.S.
The U.S. will pass cryptocurrency legislation “fairly quickly” after President-elect Donald Trump assumes office, according to Faryar Shirzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase. “We have the most pro-crypto Congress ever [in] history, we have an extraordinarily pro-crypto president coming into office,” Shirzad told CNBC last week.

[PRO] Rate cuts on the table
Last week, the chances of a December rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve seemed like a coin toss. Traders, it seems, are starting to change their minds, and think the Fed will end the year with three rate cuts in total.

The S&P 500 added 0.24% and the Nasdaq Composite, electrified by Tesla’s 3.5% rise and Super Micro Computer’s 29% surge, climbed 0.97%. Both indexes closed at fresh highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.29%, though it briefly breached the 45,000 level during the day.

“The holiday season is in full swing and spirits seem bright, at least among investors,” UBS wrote in a Monday note. Indeed, 56.4% of consumers expect stock prices to rise over the next year, according to a survey by The Conference Board. That’s the highest level on record.

Not to be a downer this holiday season, but analysts see signs that optimism might have some roots in wonderland.

Stocks might have had an incredible rally in November, but that was probably investors “pric[ing] in the upside from the new, pro-business administration,” Jay Hatfield, founder and CEO of InfraCap, told CNBC.

Now, investors “need to get details — not just tweets — but details of what the policy is,” Hatfield added, suggesting the upward momentum might take a pause for now.

Investment bank Oppenheimer also noted that stocks are still expensive. “Benchmarks [are] showing forward PE multiples that are higher than their five-year averages,” wrote chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus on Monday.

UBS thinks the exuberance among investors is “raising concern about the markets getting frothy.”

Froth implies that things will settle down, which is not necessarily a bad thing in the long run.

Oppenheimer, though, thinks the bull market is “driven by fundamentals” that will steer it higher in the next year, despite high valuations. Likewise, Savita Subramanian, head of U.S. equity and strategy at Bank of America, sees “ample reason to stick with stocks over bonds for the long-term.”

The layer of frothy milk adds to a cappuccino’s delight, after all, and doesn’t detract from the coffee below.

— CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Han, Alex Harring and Pia Singh contributed to this report.