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The mayor of Moscow, Russia, said that air defense forces shot down 10 Ukrainian drones last night and this morning.

According to Fox News, the National Defense Authorization Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives will give U.S. soldiers a 4% pay rise and eliminate the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program.

A Reuters poll shows that about 40% of Japanese companies expect profits to grow next year, far exceeding the number of companies with a bearish view.

A Reuters poll shows that two-thirds of Japanese businesses welcome the Japanese prime minister's proposed fiscal targets, which allow for more flexible spending.

On December 11, according to the Associated Press, Venezuelan President Maduro, speaking to supporters, stated that Venezuela is "ready to knock the teeth of the North American empire if necessary." This statement came as US President Trump confirmed the seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, marking a significant escalation in US actions against the Venezuelan leader. Reportedly, Maduro did not mention the tanker seizure during his speech. Standing on stage with senior officials, Maduro claimed that only the ruling party could "guarantee peace, stability, and harmonious development in Venezuela, South America, and the Caribbean."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 312 to 112, and it will next be reviewed by the Senate.

On December 11th, following the Federal Reserve's announcement of a 25 basis point interest rate cut, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates announced a 25 basis point reduction in its benchmark interest rate to 3.65%. Since 1997, the UAE has pegged its currency, the Adirham, to the US dollar. Therefore, the Central Bank of the UAE adjusts its interest rates in line with each change in the Federal Reserve's rates.

Oracle (ORCL.N) CEO: Total revenue for the third quarter is expected to grow by 16% to 18% on a constant currency basis.

Google (GOOG.O): Announces major upgrades to our Gemini 2.5 Flash and Gemini 2.5 Pro text-to-speech (TTS) preview models.

On December 11th, Eugene Epstein, Head of Trading and Structured Products at Monecorp in New Jersey, stated, "This Fed rate decision was very interesting. Not only were three members disagreeing, but there was also disagreement among those who disagreed: two voted against a rate cut, while Stephen Milan voted for a 50 basis point cut. I don't think this in itself had a substantial impact on the market, because everyone viewed this as a 'hawkish rate cut.' Everyone expected some disagreement."

Sources say U.S. officials are discussing sanctions related to "terrorism" against the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL.N) reported disappointing cloud revenue on December 11, indicating that its recent large-scale artificial intelligence orders may take longer to materialize. Oracle's second-quarter earnings showed cloud sales grew 34% to $7.98 billion, while its closely watched infrastructure business saw revenue rise 68% to $4.08 billion. However, both figures slightly missed analysts' expectations. In a statement Wednesday, the company said remaining fulfillment obligations (a metric for order backlog) jumped to $523 billion in the second quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of $519 billion.

On December 11th, Chris Grisanti, Chief Market Strategist at MAI Capital Management in New York, commented on the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision: "The initial reaction was no surprise; rates were lowered as expected. But when you look ahead, you see a lot of uncertainty. As we move from today's rate cuts to 2026, the tailwind effect of these cuts will no longer be as reliable. This could become a problem. Further, with the Fed's revised wording emphasizing the uncertainty surrounding the 'magnitude and timing' of future rate cuts, the Fed is essentially sending a signal to the market: don't take rate cuts for granted. In my view, this means we'll only see more rate cuts if the economy slows significantly. As a stock investor, I hope there won't be any rate cuts in 2026, because that would mean the economy is weakening. I'd rather have a robust economy than more rate cuts."

Adobe (ADBE.O) expects revenue of $6.25 billion to $6.3 billion for the first quarter of next year. It projects total revenue of $25.9 billion to $26.1 billion for fiscal year 2026.

Oracle (ORCL.N): Will continue to source the latest GPUs from Nvidia, and needs to be prepared to deploy any chips that customers want to buy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 497.58 points, or 1.05%, to close at 48,057.87 on Wednesday, December 10; the S&P 500 rose 46.23 points, or 0.68%, to close at 6,886.74; and the Nasdaq Composite rose 77.67 points, or 0.33%, to close at 23,654.16.