Friday’s Market Mood: Small Caps Strut, Lululemon Shakes Up, and Chips Get Choppy

​The Market’s New Crush: Financials and Industrials
Thursday’s action had a clear vibe: money keeps rotating into the “old reliable” parts of the market. Financials and industrials both hit fresh 52-week highs, and they’re doing it with the kind of swagger that usually belongs to megacap tech. Financials are up about 13% in 2025 and industrials are up about 19%, both running ahead of the S&P 500’s roughly 17% gain. In other words, this rally is broadening — and Wall Street loves a rally with options.

Winners and Losers Inside the Winning Sectors
Even inside the hot sectors, it’s not a group hug. Some industrial names have been absolute rockets this year — including GE Vernova (up around 114%), Howmet Aerospace (nearly 80%), and GE Aerospace (about 73%). Meanwhile, some household industrial names have been the sleepy ones, with Honeywell, ADP, and Old Dominion Freight all down around 10%.
On the financial side, it’s been a festival for a few standouts: Robinhood is up about 230%, while Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are each up around 59%. But not every suit is winning — MSCI, Apollo Global, and Everest Group are also down roughly 10%.

Small Caps Are Suddenly the Loudest Person in the Room
If it feels like small caps have been showing off lately, you’re not imagining it. The Russell 2000 is leading the week, up about 2.7%, and it’s up roughly 5.4% over the past month. Compare that with the Nasdaq 100, which is flat-ish on the week and only up about 0.6% over the month, and you can see the shift: investors are spreading their bets away from the most crowded tech trades and into smaller companies with more “catch-up” potential.

Materials Are Hot This Week, But Don’t Call It a Comeback Tour Yet
Materials have been the best-performing sector this week (up about 2.25%), but zoom out and it’s still been a rough stretch — the sector is down roughly 3.5% over the past three months and remains below its September high. Translation: short-term pop, longer-term rehab.

Lululemon: CEO Exit, Founder Shade, Stock Whiplash
Lululemon dropped a corporate plot twist: CEO Calvin McDonald is leaving at the end of January. That news landed right after founder and biggest shareholder Chip Wilson basically told the company it’s time to “get off the mat.” The stock has been ugly this year — down about 56% from its January high — but after hours it snapped back hard, jumping more than 10%. This is classic “bad year, big headline, violent reaction” behavior.

Starbucks: Strike Spotlight and a Stock That’s Still Off Its Peak
Starbucks is also on the radar because a barista strike is now about a month old. Roughly 145 stores are impacted and about 3,000 workers are off the job. The stock is down about 2% over the past month and sits roughly 25% below its March high — not a disaster, but not exactly a victory lap either.

Broadcom: Great Quarter, Messy Reaction
Broadcom delivered better-than-expected earnings and revenue, and CEO Hock Tan sounded upbeat — even saying AI chip sales in the first quarter are expected to double. Yet the stock turned volatile after the report and was down about 5% in after-hours trading at one point. Still, the bigger picture is strong: Broadcom is up about 15% in a month and around 122% over the past year. Wall Street’s message here is harsh but consistent: “Nice results. Now prove it again.”

Chips Beyond Broadcom: The Sector’s Still Ripping in 2025
Even with the day-to-day chop, semiconductors remain one of the year’s biggest winners. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) is up about 5.3% so far in December and roughly 53% in 2025. The trend is intact — but traders are getting pickier about who deserves the premium.

Airlines Quietly Set a New High
While everyone argues about tech, airlines have been sneaking higher. The S&P airlines industry hit a new high Thursday, up about 5% in four days and roughly 10% so far in December. Individual names have been moving too: Southwest up about 7.6% this week, Delta up 5.2%, and United up 3.3%. Not flashy — just steady strength.

Bottom Line: Friday’s Setup Is Rotation, Rotation, Rotation
​The playbook heading into Friday is pretty clear: leadership is broadening, small caps are getting love, financials and industrials are acting like the new megacaps, and tech is still powerful but no longer getting a free pass. Add a Lululemon leadership shake-up, a Starbucks labor headline, and chip-stock volatility, and you’ve got a market that’s still bullish — just a lot more selective about where it puts its money.