Market Beats | Trump Calls for “Reverse Migration” After Guard Member Shooting; US Retailers Face Cautious Consumers and Tariff Pressures; Kalshi Accused of Illegal Sports Betting and Misleading Users; Tattoo Ink May Alter Immune Responses and Persist in Lymph Nodes; CME Restores Most Trading After Cooling Failure Causes 10-Hour Outage; US Stocks Rise in Post-Holiday Session as S&P 500 Nears Record High; Airbus A320 Fleet Needs Fix After Solar Radiation Glitch

—— Trump Calls for “Reverse Migration” After Guard Member Shooting; US Retailers Face Cautious Consumers and Tariff Pressures; Kalshi Accused of Illegal Sports Betting and Misleading Users; Tattoo Ink May Alter Immune Responses and Persist in Lymph Nodes; CME Restores Most Trading After Cooling Failure Causes 10-Hour Outage; US Stocks Rise in Post-Holiday Session as S&P 500 Nears Record High; Airbus A320 Fleet Needs Fix After Solar Radiation Glitch

1. Trump Calls for “Reverse Migration” After Guard Member Shooting

Following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington by an Afghan national, President Donald Trump called for “reverse migration” in the US and outlined a further crackdown on immigration. The attack, which led to the death of one of the guardsmen, US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20 years old, prompted Trump to amplify his anti-immigration policies.

In social media posts, Trump stated he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.” He also proposed terminating millions of admissions approved under his predecessor Joe Biden and ending all federal benefits for non-citizens. Trump added that he would remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country.

Trump offered no details on how these policies, including the use of the ill-defined term “Third World” country, would be implemented. Courts have previously blocked some of his executive orders limiting immigration, and Congress has historically failed to pass major reforms. In immediate response to the shooting, the White House halted Afghan immigration proceedings and ordered a review of those already in the US.

The US has admitted more than 190 thousand Afghans since the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

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2. US Retailers Face Cautious Consumers and Tariff Pressures

As the US retail industry heads into its most important shopping season, November and December typically account for about 20% of annual sales. This year, however, the landscape looks very different. With higher living costs, economic uncertainty and a cooling labor market, consumers are becoming more cautious. While high-income shoppers remain willing to spend, overall behavior has shifted toward selectiveness, with many planning to use Black Friday not to indulge but to stock up on essentials.

Tariff-driven cost pressures have made it harder for many brands to offer the deep discounts traditionally associated with Black Friday. At the same time, reduced seasonal hiring — expected to drop to its lowest level since 2009 — means shoppers may face longer lines and fewer staff in stores as the holiday rush begins.

“Nothing is discounted enough that it makes me think, ‘I don’t need it, but I need to get it now,’” said Jennifer Greenberg, 29, while browsing for a menorah at Bloomingdale’s. Her sentiment captures the mindset of many Americans this season: willing to spend, but only when the value is clear.

Still, major retailers are rolling out promotions to draw shoppers in. Walmart is offering half-price televisions and $10 puffer jackets; Amazon is giving up to 50% off beauty products and fragrances; Target is discounting Apple products, home goods and seasonal items; and Home Depot is offering 50% off on select power tools and refrigerators.

But for the retail sector overall, this holiday season will depend far more on consumer confidence in the broader economy than on the sheer excitement of bargain hunting.

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3. Kalshi Accused of Illegal Sports Betting and Misleading Users

Prediction-market operator Kalshi Inc. is facing a fresh legal challenge after a proposed class action filed Wednesday accused the company of illegally running a sports-betting operation and misleading customers about how its markets function. The lawsuit, filed in New York on behalf of seven Kalshi app users, claims the firm markets itself as offering “legal sports betting” despite lacking a gaming license in any US state.

The complaint further alleges that Kalshi’s affiliate, Kalshi Trading, serves as a market maker that effectively sets betting lines unfavorable to customers, creating a structure akin to wagering “against the house.” According to the plaintiffs, “When consumers place bets on Kalshi, they face off against money provided by a sophisticated market maker. This enables illegal, unregulated wagers against the House.”

The suit — brought by prominent plaintiffs’ firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein — comes as Kalshi already battles litigation from state gambling regulators and Native American tribal groups, who argue the platform is offering illegal sports betting. Kalshi maintains that it is a derivatives exchange overseen solely by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Responding online Friday, Kalshi co-founder Luana Lopes Lara called the allegations “false” and said they showed a “fundamental misunderstanding” of prediction markets. She noted that having market makers — including affiliated trading desks — is “common and regulated” and that none receive preferential treatment on the exchange.

Yet regulatory pressure has been mounting. A federal judge in Nevada recently ruled the company is subject to state oversight, dealing Kalshi a significant blow. The platform has filed an emergency motion to halt that order.

Wednesday’s lawsuit argues that Kalshi has violated gambling laws, engaged in deceptive conduct and “unjustly enriched itself at the expense of tens of thousands of consumers.” It does not specify whether plaintiffs lost money on sports-related markets, only that they were unaware the company allegedly operated as an unlicensed sportsbook.

Under CFTC rules, event contracts are treated as swaps, allowing traders to wager on yes-or-no outcomes with payouts of one dollar per contract. Traders may stake thousands of dollars and either earn substantial gains or lose their entire investment. Skeptics, however — including Judge Andrew Gordon — contend that sports-related markets stretch the definition of a swap.

“Event contracts turning on sports outcomes are not swaps and are not within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction,” Gordon wrote, calling Kalshi’s argument a strained interpretation of the Commodity Exchange Act designed to sidestep state gaming rules.

At least five other courts across the country are facing similar disputes, underscoring the growing clash between prediction markets and longstanding state gambling laws.

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4. Tattoo Ink May Alter Immune Responses and Persist in Lymph Nodes

Tattoo ink doesn’t remain inert in the skin. A new Swiss study shows it rapidly migrates into the lymphatic system, where it can persist for months, kill immune cells and modify how the body responds to vaccines.

Using a mouse model, researchers found that pigments drained into nearby lymph nodes within minutes of tattooing, continuing to accumulate for two months and triggering immune-cell death and sustained inflammation.

The ink also weakened the antibody response to Pfizer–BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine when administered into tattooed skin, while the same inflammation boosted responses to an inactivated flu vaccine. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings raise a public-health concern as tattooing becomes increasingly common. A 2023 Pew Research survey estimated that 32% of US adults have at least one tattoo, and 22% have multiple.

With billions spent on tattoos annually, the authors at Università della Svizzera italiana say stricter toxicology testing and tighter oversight of tattoo-ink ingredients are needed, given that regulation remains far looser than for medical substances.

“This work represents the most extensive study to date on tattoo ink’s impact on immune responses and raises serious health concerns associated with tattooing,” the researchers wrote. “Our findings highlight the need for further research to inform public-health policies and regulatory frameworks.”

The study does not show whether the same immune effects occur in humans — that has not been tested — but the risks are clear. Pigments have long been documented in human lymph nodes, and the mouse findings mirror observations in humans and primates.

A 2024 Swedish study of nearly 12,000 people found that tattooed individuals had a 21% higher risk of malignant lymphoma, with the strongest associations appearing in the first two years after tattooing and again more than a decade later. Elevated risk spanned both aggressive types like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and slower-growing forms such as follicular lymphoma.

A Danish twin study published in January found similar patterns: tattooed individuals faced higher risks of skin cancers — including melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma — as well as lymphoma, with hazards rising further for tattoos larger than a palm. In one arm of the study, large tattoos were linked to a 2.7-fold higher hazard of lymphoma and more than double the risk of skin cancer.

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5. CME Restores Most Trading After Cooling Failure Causes 10-Hour Outage

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange restored most of its trading operations after an hours-long outage caused by a cooling-system malfunction at a key data center disrupted multiple financial markets across Asia and Europe.

CME Group said that its Globex Futures & Options markets — which handle futures, options, and commodities trading and account for 90% of the company’s volume — reopened at 8:30 a.m. New York time. Activity remained thin in several markets, with traders reporting delays in Treasury futures and SOFR options. The nearly 10-hour halt, roughly triple the length of a similar disruption in 2019, frustrated market participants unable to trade S&P 500 futures and other contracts ahead of month-end.

“I woke up thinking my Wi-Fi was out,” said Ritik Katte, CIO of London-based MCD Capital.

The outage highlighted the vast reach of CME and its Globex platform, which underpins operations at the Chicago Board of Trade, NYMEX, and COMEX. A separate CME platform, CME Direct, remained offline even after Globex resumed.

CyrusOne — the operator of the Chicago-area data center and backed by KKR and BlackRock’s infrastructure arm — said the outage stemmed from a malfunction in the facility’s cooling system. The Aurora, Illinois center, a 450,000-square-foot hub, has served as CME’s primary digital backbone for nearly two decades and is widely known among high-frequency traders for its premium colocation positioning.

The disruption struck the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, when markets were closed and Friday trading was expected to be subdued. Still, the downtime complicated month-end roll activity for many investors.

“We’ve had to trade some cash Treasuries today and it was noticeably thinner and wider,” said James Athey, portfolio manager at Marlborough Investment Management. “Month-end, day after Thanksgiving, CME down. It’s not an ideal combo!”

The incident underscores how a single point of failure can ripple across commodities, FX, and fixed-income markets, while raising questions about the robustness of CME’s contingency planning and its coordination with CyrusOne.

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6. US Stocks Rise in Post-Holiday Session as S&P 500 Nears Record High

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, putting the benchmark back within close reach of its all-time high. Trading volume was more than 25% below the 30-day average as markets closed at 1 p.m. Earlier in the day, a data-center fault had disrupted multiple markets, lasting longer than a similar outage in 2019.

The Nasdaq 100 gained 0.8%, with Intel among its strongest performers. Amazon.com climbed 1.8% and Walmart hit a record high on what is typically one of the biggest shopping days in the US. Foreign-exchange markets saw no notable volatility after the EBS platform reopened at 7 a.m.

“The spillover from the Thanksgiving holiday and the absence of US economic data may on the face of it lessen the impact,” said Daniel Noorian, head of execution and quantitative services at Liquidnet. Expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates faster than previously expected helped fuel a late-month rebound in US equities.

The advance capped the strongest week in five months after a choppy November in which stretched tech valuations stirred unease on Wall Street.

The S&P 500 notched its seventh straight monthly gain, but rotation away from AI winners and toward defensive sectors such as health care led the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 to record its first monthly decline since March.

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7. Airbus A320 Fleet Needs Fix After Solar Radiation Glitch

Airbus SE cautioned that more than half of its active A320 jetliner family fleet will need a software fix after a recent incident revealed that “intense solar radiation” could corrupt data critical to functioning flight controls. The European planemaker stated that more than 6500 jets in total may be impacted. The advisory follows an unnerving October 30 incident involving a JetBlue aircraft that suffered a computer glitch, resulting in a sudden, unexpected downward pitch without pilot input, though the jet diverted safely with no injuries.

The finding risks becoming a significant headache for Airbus, given the A320 family is its most widely flown aircraft with more than 11 thousand in operation. The malfunction was traced to the plane’s elevator-aileron computer, ELAC 2. Regulators have issued a directive mandating the upgrade before an aircraft’s next regular flight, a necessity Airbus acknowledged will lead to operational disruptions.

American Airlines Group Inc. said about 340 jets are affected, with the vast majority scheduled to receive the update today and tomorrow. While most jets can receive an uncomplicated software update with minimal downtime, about 1000 older jets will require a hardware upgrade, necessitating grounding for the duration of the maintenance.

Hungarian discount carrier Wizz Air Holdings Plc, which operates an Airbus-only fleet, said it has immediately scheduled the necessary maintenance, which may affect some flights over the weekend.

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