Markus Andrews

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Macroeconomic uncertainty and potential policy changes under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump have driven the stock market to new heights the past four weeks. But investors stand to benefit if they ignore short-term noise to focus instead on companies that can navigate challenges and deliver solid returns over the long term.
Top Wall Street analysts look to pick stocks of companies that are backed by strong financials, reliable business models and that boast attractive product offerings.

With that in mind, here are three stocks favored by the Street’s top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

ServiceNow

This week’s first pick is artificial intelligence-enabled workflow automation software company ServiceNow (NOW). The company’s third-quarter results topped analysts’ expectations, thanks to AI-related tailwinds.
Following a virtual fireside chat with ServiceNow’s CFO Gina Mastantuono, Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz reiterated a buy rating on NOW stock. The analyst also raised the price target to $1,070 from $980 to account for the rise in comparative valuation multiples.
The analyst said management is confident of ServiceNow’s near-term (Q4) and medium-term (2026) outlook and believes the company is well-positioned for durable growth. In particular, management touted robust demand that’s building generative AI-led momentum for ServiceNow’s Pro Plus SKU offering.
Additionally, Moskowitz highlighted the company’s excitement about the growth potential of its new Workflow Data Fabric product, which unifies business and technology data across an enterprise and will power new workflows and AI agents. The company expects this new product will double its total addressable market to $500 billion and drive additional monetization.

“We continue to believe that NOW remains very well-positioned for high growth over the next few years, fueled by ongoing demand for workflow automation, strong cross-sell opportunities and AI monetization,” said Moskowitz.
Moskowitz ranks No. 221 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 61% of the time, delivering an average return of 14.6%. See ServiceNow Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks.

Snowflake

Next is Snowflake (SNOW), a data analytics software provider. Shares of the company soared nearly 33% on November 21 as investors cheered its better-than-anticipated third-quarter results.
Impressed by the Q3 performance, TD Cowen analyst Derrick Wood reaffirmed a buy rating on SNOW and increased his 12-month price target to $190 from $180. The analyst found that the company’s performance was uniformly impressive, and said the quarter marked a turning point in Snowflake’s growth story.
Wood noted the key drivers behind Q3 results included benefits from changes in Snowflake’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy, lower-than-expected storage headwinds as traction in new data engineering services more than offset migrations in the Iceberg product and early traction in Cortex AI services.
The analyst also mentioned strength in Snowflake winning large deals, including the signing of three $50 million contracts in the third quarter, and bullish commentary on the Q4 large deals pipeline.
Wood is bullish about the outlook for Snowflake, given increased stability in its core data warehousing consumption growth. That growth was reflected in net retention rate (NRR) trends and “early traction with new AI workloads, esp. Dynamic Tables.”
Wood ranks No. 80 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 66% of the time, delivering an average return of 18.1%. See SNOW Stock Charts on TipRanks.

Twilio

This week’s third pick is Twilio (TWLO), a cloud communications platform. The company impressed investors with its market-beating third-quarter results and raised full-year revenue outlook. San Francisco-based Twilio attributed Q3 performance to its financial discipline and innovation.
Impressed with the rebound in the business, Monness analyst Brian White upgraded TWLO stock to a buy from a hold with a price target of $135.
White noted that the company’s digital platform saw solid demand during the pandemic, with its stock price touching an all-time high in early 2021. But following the reopening of the economy, Twilio’s growth rate decelerated to 4% in Q1 2024 from a peak of 67% in Q2 2021 and it faced a bloated cost structure.
That said, White argued that after eleven consecutive quarters of slower revenue growth, Twilio’s top line saw modest acceleration in Q2 2024 and more visible improvement in Q3 2024. The analyst also noted the rise in TWLO’s operating margin, thanks to the company’s cost containment and efficiency measures as well as divestitures.
White is confident in Twilio’s ability to combine communications with contextual data and AI. “Heading into 2025, we believe Twilio is on course to extend this recovery, and the stock’s valuation remains attractive,” he concluded.
White ranks No. 44 among more than 9,100 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, delivering an average return of 20.4%. See Twilio Financial Statements on TipRanks. More

The euro has largely been stronger than the U.S. dollar for decades. That’s made it relatively costly for Americans to make purchases in most European nations.
Economists expect the euro to hit or even dip below parity with the U.S. dollar in 2025. The currencies would have a 1:1 exchange rate.
The expectation is due partly to tariff policies anticipated under President-elect Donald Trump.

Oscar Wong | Moment | Getty Images

Americans traveling to Europe next year may be in store for some bargains.
That’s due to euro-U.S. dollar exchange rates. The euro has weakened against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks and is poised to fall further in 2025 and perhaps into 2026, economists said.

“That’s a good thing for American tourists traveling abroad in Europe,” said Brendan McKenna, an international economist at Wells Fargo Economics. Their purchasing power could rise “pretty significantly,” he said.
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The euro has largely been stronger than the dollar for decades, making it pricier for travelers to buy goods and services denominated in euros.
But anticipated policies under President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration, such as tariffs, and other economic dynamics are expected to bolster the U.S. dollar and depreciate the euro, economists said.

Euro is expected to hit parity with the dollar

Economists expect the euro to fall to or even below parity with the U.S. dollar next year. That would mean the currencies had a 1:1 exchange rate.

The euro is used by 20 of the 27 nations in the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
The currency most recently hit parity with the dollar in 2022, for the first time in two decades, before rebounding.

Now, euro parity is “back on the cards,” James Reilly, senior markets economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note Nov. 11.
“The euro has suffered more than most in the wake of Trump’s victory and we doubt that will let up anytime soon,” he wrote.
As of 10 a.m. ET on Friday morning, 1 euro equaled about $1.06. That’s down about 3% from roughly $1.09 as of market close on Election Day.
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) was also recently on a winning streak, Reilly told CNBC. Last week marked the eighth straight week of gains in the index, an “extreme run” that had only happened three times since 2000, Reilly said.
Travelers can try to take advantage of these currency dynamics by delaying a purchase until next year. For example, a European hotel or tour that allows you to book now for 2025 but pay later lets you defer the expense — understanding, of course, that it’s not a guarantee the euro will continue to weaken against the dollar.

Tariffs, interest rates and a strong economy

Tariffs and trade policy are major factors influencing euro-USD currency dynamics, economists said.
Trump has floated broad tariffs on global trading partners.
On the campaign trail, he proposed tariffs of 10% or 20% on all imports, which would include those from the European Union. He vowed Monday to impose an additional 10% tariff on China, and 25% tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico, on his first day in office, signaling his willingness to implement import taxes.
The ultimate scope and magnitude of tariff policy are unclear, however.

The euro has suffered more than most in the wake of Trump’s victory and we doubt that will let up anytime soon.

James Reilly
senior markets economist at Capital Economics

Tariffs on Europe could reduce demand for its exports, causing Europe’s economy to weaken and the euro to lose value, economists said.
Interest-rate differentials also have a large influence on relative currency movements, economists said. They expect the interest-rate spread between the U.S. and eurozone to widen due partly to tariff impact.
Tariffs are expected to “be inflationary for the U.S.,” Reilly said. Those import taxes are paid by U.S. businesses, which generally pass their higher costs onto consumers.
U.S. Federal Reserve officials may keep interest rates higher for longer to bring inflation back to their long-term target. Meanwhile, economists expect the European Central Bank to keep cutting rates.

Tariffs on the eurozone would probably lead the ECB to cut rates further, in a bid to prop up the European economy, creating a widening rate differential that “pretty dramatically” favors the dollar, said McKenna of Wells Fargo.
There are other factors, too.
For one, the U.S. economy has “held up a lot better than anyone has been expecting” over the past year or two, in stark contrast with Europe, Reilly said.
Also, financial markets dislike uncertainty, McKenna said.
If question marks around Trump administration policy unsettles markets in the short term, investors would likely seek out safe-haven assets denominated in U.S. dollars, such as U.S. Treasury bonds, thereby strengthening the dollar, McKenna said.

Of course, there’s a risk Europe retaliates with its own tariffs or somehow penalizes Americans by raising certain consumer prices, such as airfares, Reilly said.
“We don’t think that will happen,” he said. “We think Europe wants as free trade as it can.” More

GE Vernova’s small modular reactor, BWRX-300, could play a role in developing more nuclear power over the next decade.
The General Electric spinoff is targeting more than $2 billion in annual revenue from its small reactor business by the mid-2030s.
The company sees demand for as many as 57 small reactors in total across its target markets in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe by 2035.
In addition to active conversations with utilities to build an order book, GE Vernova is also seeing interest from major tech companies.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor incorporates proven components.
Courtesy: GE Verona

GE Vernova is aiming to deploy small nuclear reactors across the developed world over the next decade, staking out a leadership position in a budding technology that could play a central role in meeting surging electricity demand and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The company’s small modular reactor, or SMR, is designed to reduce the cost of building new nuclear plants, said Nicole Holmes, chief commercial officer at GE Vernova’s nuclear unit GE Hitachi.

GE Vernova is the spinoff of General Electric’s former energy business. The company’s stock has more than doubled since listing on the New York Stock Exchange last April, with investors seeing the Cambridge, Mass.-based company playing a key role in the future of the power industry through a portfolio of divisions that span nuclear, natural gas, wind and carbon capture.
The U.S. government wants to triple nuclear power by 2050 to shore up an electric grid that is under growing pressure from surging power demand. But large nuclear projects, in the U.S. at least, are notoriously plagued by multi-billion dollar budgets, cost overruns, delayed construction timelines and, sometimes, cancellations.
“Affordability has been the real challenge for nuclear through the many years,” Holmes told CNBC. “We’re beginning to crack that at this point.”
Simpler design
GE Vernova’s SMR, the BWRX-300, has a simpler design with fewer components and less concrete and steel compared to a larger nuclear plant, Holmes said. The reactor might cost somewhere in the range of $2 billion to $4 billion to build compared to $10 billion to $15 billion for a large nuclear plant, Holmes said.
The plant generates 300 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 200,000 U.S. households. The average reactor in the U.S. fleet has about 1,000 megawatts of power, enough for more than 700,000 homes. The smaller size offers more flexibility in terms of location, she said.

“You could put four of these on a site and get the same output as you would from a single large reactor,” the executive said.  “You can have one started, deploying energy, making money while you build out others. It gives you a lot of optionality,” she said.
GE Vernova is targeting more than $2 billion in annual revenue from its small reactor business by the mid-2030s. That compares with total company revenue of $33.2 billion last year. GE Vernova sees demand for as many as 57 small reactors in total across its target markets in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe by 2035.
To hit that revenue target, GE Vernova would need to ship between three to four reactors per year, according to an October research note from Bank of America. The company could capture a 33% market share in its target markets, according to the bank.
“We’re underway building a strong order book in those target markets,” Holmes said. “A lot of the buyers in these early stages will be utilities.”
GE Vernova is also talking to major tech companies, which Holmes declined to name, that are showing a growing interest in nuclear power to meet electricity demand from their artificial intelligence data centers.
“We are in conversations with a lot of the big tech companies,” Holmes said. “I see a ton of interest from them in in new nuclear, and what it could do to meet some of their energy demands.”
North America deployments
GE Vernova signed a collaboration agreement in March 2023 with Ontario Power Generation, Tennessee Valley Authority and Synthos Green Energy in Poland to invest $500 million to kick start the BWRX-300 and launch the reactor at a commercial scale.
The goal is to create a standardized reactor design that can be deployed across GE Vernova’s target markets rather than building different nuclear plants at each site, Holmes said.
“We’re working on a plant that can be deployed in many, many places across many, many regulatory regimes and still be the same fundamental plant,” Holmes said. “They’re helping us with those requirements to make it the same,” she said of the collaboration partners.
GE Vernova is also seeing growing interest in expanding capacity at existing nuclear plants by adding small modular reactors, said Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Parks on the company’s Oct. 23 earnings call.
GE Vernova won the first commercial contract in North America to deploy a small modular reactor for Ontario Power in January 2023. Holmes described the project as the first commercial deployment of an SMR not only in North America, but also in the developed world.
The reactor is scheduled to come online in 2029 in Darlington on Lake Ontario about 60 miles east of Toronto. Ontario Power eventually plans to deploy three more BWRX-300 reactors at Darlington.

In the U.S., the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is considering building a BWRX-300 at its Clinch River site a few miles from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
TVA received the first early site permit in the nation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2019 for a small modular reactor at Clinch River. The power company has approved $350 million for the project so far, though its board has not made a final decision yet on whether to build a reactor.
TVA is pursuing small reactors because there is less financial risk tied to them compared to large 1,000 megawatt, or 1 gigawatt, size reactors, said Scott Hunnewell, vice president of TVA’s new nuclear program.
 “If you have a gigawatt scale plant where your construction timeline starts at eight years and then gets longer, your interest expenses really start to accrue and really drive your cost up,” Hunnewell told CNBC. “The SMR just overall, it’s a smaller bite at the apple, a lot less risk associated with it.”
And TVA is already familiar with the boiling water technology of the BWRX-300, Hunnewell said. The power company operates three large GE boiling water reactors at its Browns Ferry site that use the same fuel that would power the BWRX-300.
“GE Hitachi is a known quantity,” Hunnewell said.
GE Vernova, Ontario Power, TVA and Synthos Green Energy will share lessons learned as they deploy reactors to further streamline the construction process, Holmes said.
The collaboration will also potentially benefit companies that are not part of the team. TVA plans to share information with any utility that is interested in learning from the power company’s experience as it seeks to deploy small reactors, Hunnewell said.
Tech sector interest
While the primary customers for the BWRX-300 are utilities, the tech sector is playing an increasingly influential role in reviving nuclear power after a long period of reactor shutdowns in the U.S. due to poor economics in the face of cheap and plentiful natural gas.
Microsoft signed 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy, which will provide long-term financial support to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear plant outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Amazon and Alphabet’s Google made investments in small nuclear reactors in October.
Holmes doesn’t see the tech companies actually building and operating their own nuclear plants, but instead supporting the deployment of new reactors by purchasing dedicated power from utilities.
“As utilities think about deploying additional capacity, these large tech companies could be an off taker and agree to power purchase prices that support deployment of these early units and early technologies,” Holmes said.
The growing power needs of tech companies’ artificial intelligence data centers will be a “tremendous demand driver” for small nuclear reactors, the executive added. More

When Bernadette Joy and her husband were paying off their $300,000 in debt, she didn’t nix shopping altogether.
Instead, she came up with her own measure for cost per use that helped her make better decisions.
This holiday season, that same method may help consumers avoid regret purchases.

Shoppers carry their purchases on Black Friday in New York City on November 29, 2024. 
Adam Gray | AFP | Getty Images

When Bernadette Joy graduated with an MBA in 2016, she and her husband had around $300,000 in debt, including student loans and mortgage balances.
By 2020, they were debt free.

As Joy sought financial independence, the financial tips she found — “eat beans and rice; don’t have any fun; shopping is terrible” — didn’t resonate with her.
Instead, Joy found more creative ways to shop without feeling guilty. That led her to come up with a method she calls “The $1 rule,” which she details in her new book, “Crush Your Money Goals.”
“The $1 rule is my twist on cost per use or cost per wear,” said Joy, who is a financial coach and debt repayment expert. “But I simplified it even more to say, it’s OK to buy something if it comes out to $1 per use.”
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For example, when a friend was looking to buy an expensive couch, Joy used the $1 rule to help him figure out it would be worth it as long as he kept it for five years and used it daily.

The rule has also helped Joy personally avoid buying low-quality items or things she won’t use often, she said.
She had her eye on a warming dish to use when entertaining, for example, and realized the $30 cost wouldn’t justify the two times per year she would likely use it.
The “$1 rule” can also be very helpful during the holidays when you are trying to buy gifts for people they will really enjoy, she said.
Joy said she uses the rule whenever she buy gifts for people, thinking, “Is this something that they would use a lot?”

Impulse purchases can lead to regrets

A record 183.4 million people are expected to shop both online and in-person in the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
More than half of consumers — 57% — say they plan to shop then because of deals that are too good to pass up, the industry organization found in a recent survey.
Good deals can lead to impulse buying, according to recent research from Bankrate, which found 54% of adults made at least one spur-of-the-moment purchase last holiday season.
However, those impulse purchases can lead to regrets.
A separate Bankrate survey on online purchases prompted by social media found 57% of consumers regretted at least one of those transactions.

It’s OK to indulge occasionally, so long as you have made room for it in your budget ahead of time, said Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
“You don’t want to still be paying off this holiday season a year from now,” Rossman said.
To that point, 28% of people are still paying off credit-card debt from the 2023 holiday season, NerdWallet found.
Overspending can still be a reality for many households, since prices have gone up 20% since the beginning of 2021, while wages have only gone up an average of 17% in that time, he said.
While interest rates have come down, the average credit card rate is still about 20.4%, according to Rossman.

Take a pause before buying

To help avoid expensive purchases that may lead consumers to carry credit card balances from month to month, it can help to take a moment and pause before making a purchase, Rossman said.
Meanwhile, other shopping tips can help you get the most for your money this holiday season.
Choosing an experience instead of material things can make the holidays more memorable, Joy said. For example, instead of a “Secret Santa” gift exchange, friends can plan a group outing.

While retailers may put on the pressure with time-sensitive offers, “there’s a good chance there’s going to be another sale behind it,” Rossman said.
When making a purchase, be sure to pay attention to whether the total cost works within your budget, particularly if you’re using an installment plan like buy now pay later, Rossman said.
And be sure to compare to see whether a particular retailer is truly offering the best deal, he said. Price trackers like Camel Camel Camel for Amazon can help show you how a sale compares. More

Consumer advocates are worried about the fate of the U.S. Department of Education’s new affordable repayment option for borrowers, known as SAVE, under President-elect Donald Trump.
That program was supposed to cut in half monthly bills for millions of federal student loan borrowers.

Tomas Rodriguez | Corbis | Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump has made his dislike for student debt relief clear. Experts expect he will abandon or roll back many of the Biden administration’s student loan efforts — which on the campaign trail he called “vile” and “not even legal.”
Assuming the Trump administration abandons the U.S. Department of Education’s new affordable repayment plan, known as SAVE, borrowers enrolled in it will have to shift to a different repayment plan with significantly higher monthly payments.

SAVE was supposed to cut in half monthly bills for millions of federal student loan borrowers.
“For those worried about SAVE going away, I think it probably will, unfortunately,” said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that helps borrowers navigate the repayment of their debt.
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SAVE has already been temporarily suspended by a federal court, after legal challenges brought by Republican attorneys general in Kansas and Missouri. In the meantime, the Biden administration has put SAVE enrollees into an indefinite administrative forbearance in which they don’t owe anything on their debt.
When Trump returns to the White House in January, borrowers enrolled in SAVE should be prepared for that forbearance to come to an end, said Malissa Giles, a consumer bankruptcy lawyer in Virginia.

The incoming administration is “not bound by the position of the prior administration,” Giles said.
If the Trump administration doesn’t continue to defend the SAVE plan in court or the Republican-controlled Congress scraps it entirely, borrowers are likely to see their bills revert to their prior levels, Giles said. For some, bills could be double what they would have paid under SAVE.
“I cannot imagine the stress that will be put on folks,” Giles said.

President Joe Biden rolled out the SAVE plan in the summer of 2023, describing it as “the most affordable student loan plan ever.” SAVE replaced the Education Department’s former REPAYE option, or Revised Pay As You Earn plan.
Around 8 million borrowers signed up for the new income-driven repayment, or IDR, plan, according to the White House.
Under IDR plans, borrowers’ monthly payments are set based on a share of their discretionary income. They receive forgiveness after a certain period, typically 20 years or 25 years.
The SAVE plan had the most generous terms to date.
Instead of paying 10% of their discretionary income a month toward their undergraduate student debt, as they did under REPAYE, borrowers needed to pay just 5%. Those who earned less than roughly $15 an hour had a $0 monthly bill, and borrowers with smaller balances were entitled to loan forgiveness on an expedited timeline — in as little as 10 years.

Republican-backed states argued that the Biden administration overstepped its authority with SAVE, and was using the plan as a roundabout way to forgive student debt after the Supreme Court blocked its sweeping loan cancellation plan last year.
Before the legal challenges, the Education Department had already forgiven $5.5 billion in student debt for 414,000 borrowers through the SAVE Plan.
Proponents of the relief plan argue that student loan borrowers need more affordable repayment options. Nearly a third, 30%, of the borrowers say they’ve gone without food, medicine or other necessities because of their monthly bills, according to a new survey by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
More people will be forced to make these hard decisions if SAVE goes away, Giles said.
“What challenges are people going to [face] when their payments double?” she said. “It’s a crazy hot mess.” More

Retiring early is the dream for many workers. Yet many people find themselves forced to call it quits because of health, career or family circumstances.
“Many people may not even realize how severe the consequences can be,” one expert said.

Ascentxmedia | E+ | Getty Images

Lost years ‘absolutely critical’ for retirement security

Unplanned early retirements can have severe financial implications for retirees, according to Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of Transamerica Institute and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.
“Many people may not even realize how severe the consequences can be and how absolutely critical those extra five or 10 years in the workforce can be in terms of achieving retirement security,” Collinson said.
If those new retirees take Social Security benefits before their full retirement age — which is 66 to 67, depending on date of birth — they take permanently reduced benefits. The median age for claiming Social Security benefits is 64, according to EBRI. Retirees stand to get the biggest Social Security benefits if they wait until age 70.

Retirees who stop working at age 62 miss out financially in other ways.
They may lose five years of income, assuming they intended to retire at their full retirement age of 67, Collinson said.
They may also lose potential employer-sponsored retirement benefits and additional credits towards their Social Security work history.
They’re also missing out on growth of their savings and investments, assuming they would have left those untapped if they kept working.
Plus, they have to pay for health insurance before the Medicare eligibility age of 65, which can be expensive, Collinson said.

Reset financial goals after an early retirement

People who are forced into early retirement may not have a lot of financial flexibility. But they should sit down and come up with a financial plan, which can help assess their risks of running out of money in the future, Collinson said.
If possible, newly retired individuals should try to give themselves time to pause and reset their financial goals, said Ted Jenkin, a certified financial planner and the CEO and founder of oXYGen Financial, a financial advisory and wealth management firm based in Atlanta.
When they do evaluate their finances, they should consider whether it would be advantageous to move, including to a place where taxes may be lower; carefully review the rules that come with COBRA or other health insurance plans; and take a look at any unused perks that may be available to them, such as credit card rewards, said Jenkin, who is also a member of the CNBC FA Council.

Still-employed pre-retirees should also take note and take steps now to try to extend their working years, Collinson said.
By keeping good health habits, making sure their job skills are up to date and relevant and continuing to build their professional networks, workers may avoid unforeseen early retirements, she said. More