Declining Deficit, Cutting Costs, and Pricey Production

December 05, 2025

Declining Deficit – The U.S. government had a $284 billion deficit in October 2025. While the October 2025 budget was $27 billion higher than the October 2024 budget, there were $105 billion in November 2025 benefits paid in October. Removing these payments, the October 2025 deficit is 29% lower compared to October 2024 (source: Reuters).
Google’s Gold Star – Google posted strong November results, with its share price increasing 13.6% from $281.82 on October 31, 2025 to $320.12 on November 28, 2025. This comes after Google struck a multi-billion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta (source: Google Finance).
Cutting Costs – HP announced plans to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs by fiscal 2028 by leveraging AI tools. HP estimates annual gross savings of $1 billion. This comes after HP missed its earnings forecast (source: Bloomberg).
Pricey Production – The Producer Price Index for final demand rose by 0.3% in September 2025, bringing the 12-month average to 2.7%. 60% of the September 2025 increase is attributable to gasoline prices, which rose by 11.8% (source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Tax Talk – The Dutch Public Prosecutor has fined Morgan Stanley $117.10 million for dividend tax evasion. According to the Dutch Public Prosecutor, Morgan Stanley improperly claimed tax rebates (source: Reuters).
Bubbling Bitcoin – Bitcoin posted its second-worst monthly performance of 2025 after declining by 17.28% in November 2025. Similarly, Bitcoin ETFs had $3.48 billion in outflows in November 2025, which is the second-largest monthly outflow since the ETFs launched in 2024 (source: Yahoo Finance).
Boeing’s Bid – Boeing won a $2.47 billion contract for 15 U.S. Air Force KC-46A tankers. This comes after Boeing was awarded over $7 billion in contracts for helicopters and aircraft (source: Reuters).
Got Deals? – U.S. consumers spent $11.8 billion on Black Friday, which is a 9.1% increase from 2024. This is in addition to the $6.4 billion spent on Thanksgiving Day. Mobile shopping contributed to more than half of all sales (source: CBS News).
Bearly Believable – The Chicago Bears have taken the one-seed spot in the NFC for the first time since 2006 after defeating the Philadelphia Eagles on November 28 (source: Bears Wire).
Hurricane Who? – No Atlantic hurricanes made landfall in the U.S. during hurricane season for the first time in ten years. The 2025 hurricane season officially ended on November 30, 2025 (source: CBS News).

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