Editor's Note:This Week's Top Performers in Hong Kong and US StocksThe column closely follows market dynamics on a weekly basis, reviewing the weekly performance of Hong Kong and U.S. stock markets, helping fellow investors identify key sectors, strong stocks, and major news highlights for the week, while seeking investment themes with profit potential.
On December 3, the latest ADP employment data showed that the private sector shed 32,000 jobs in November, marking the largest decline since March 2023 and significantly underperforming market expectations for an increase of 40,000 jobs. This data underscores growing pressures in the labor market as the Federal Reserve approaches a critical juncture in its policy pivot. The report will serve as an important reference ahead of the Fed’s December policy meeting.
Futures markets indicate that traders see a nearly 90% probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by another 25 basis points, despite some officials expressing reservations about further monetary easing. Additionally, Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council, stated that the Fed is likely to cut rates at its next meeting, with an expected reduction of approximately 25 basis points. On the selection of the next Fed Chair, he noted that the individual should be someone who responds to data.
As of Thursday's close,$Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$Cumulatively up by 0.28%, closing at 47,850.94 points; over the same period,$S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$Cumulatively up by 0.12%, closing at 6,857.12 points; $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ It has cumulatively increased by 0.6% year-to-date, closing at 23,505.14 points.
$AST SpaceMobile (ASTS.US)$ The stock surged nearly 30% within the week after the company announced the launch date of BlueBird 6 and its factory expansion plans.
$AST SpaceMobile (ASTS.US)$ The company announced a plan to conduct five satellite launches sequentially starting from mid-December. The first launch is scheduled for December 15 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, carrying AST's next-generation satellite, 'BlueBird 6.' Equipped with a phased array antenna spanning nearly 2,400 square feet, the satellite offers 3.5 times the area and tenfold the data capacity of earlier models.
AST aims to complete five orbital launches by the first quarter of 2026, targeting the deployment of 45 to 60 satellites by year-end to achieve continuous coverage across the United States and service in select overseas markets. Production is accelerating, with 40 satellites nearing completion, supported by a total of 400,000 square feet of manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Abel Avellan, Chairman and CEO of the company, emphasized the transformative potential of these satellites. He stated: 'Our next-generation satellites will soon enable ubiquitous cellular broadband coverage directly to standard smartphones from space.' He also noted that AST is advancing the United States' leadership in space innovation.
In addition to the launch schedule, AST SpaceMobile also announced the expansion of its manufacturing facilities in Texas and Florida to increase satellite production and strengthen the domestic supply chain. Avellan explained: 'This move aims to manufacture satellites faster and in greater quantities, entirely within the U.S., fulfilling our mission to bridge the global connectivity gap.'
The company anticipates that the launch of 'BlueBird 6' will serve as a significant milestone in achieving global cellular broadband coverage. Its larger phased array antenna is specifically designed to enhance data throughput and extend coverage to underserved regions.
$Microchip Technology (MCHP.US)$ The stock surged over 20% within the week, and the company raised its outlook for the third fiscal quarter.
$Microchip Technology (MCHP.US)$ The company now expects its net sales and diluted earnings per share to be at the higher end of the previously guided range, implying a sequential increase of approximately 1%, surpassing the midpoint of the prior guidance which anticipated a decline in net sales. The revised revenue guidance for the December 2025 quarter reflects a year-over-year growth of 12%.
Microchip Technology had initially provided preliminary guidance on November 6, 2025, projecting consolidated net sales to range between $1.109 billion and $1.149 billion. The company now anticipates GAAP earnings per share of approximately $0.02 and non-GAAP earnings per share of approximately $0.40. The previous guidance for GAAP loss/profit per share was in the range of -$0.02 to $0.02, with non-GAAP earnings per share estimated between $0.34 and $0.40.
$Microchip Technology (MCHP.US)$ CEO and President Steve Sanghi commented, "Two months into the quarter, our business performance has exceeded the expectations we outlined during our earnings call on November 6, 2025. Order activity remained robust throughout November, with backlog for the current quarter surpassing expectations and growing steadily, extending smoothly into the next quarter ending March 2026. We are actively advancing our nine-point recovery plan and strategic initiatives, including reducing inventory levels, improving non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, and earnings per share, while making steady progress toward our long-term business model goals."
In addition, several institutions updated their ratings on the company. Needham analyst Quinn Bolton maintained a 'Buy' rating and raised the price target from $73 to $75. Wells Fargo analyst Joseph Quatrochi initiated coverage with a 'Hold' rating, while Rosenblatt Securities analyst Kevin Cassidy maintained a 'Buy' rating and kept the price target at $80.
$MongoDB (MDB.US)$ Up nearly 20% over the week, share price hits a new high for the year; Q3 revenue increased 19% year-over-year.
$MongoDB (MDB.US)$ Released third-quarter earnings that far exceeded expectations. Adjusted earnings per share for the third quarter were $1.32, with revenue growing 19% year-over-year to reach $628.3 million. The artificial intelligence boom is continuing to drive higher demand for its products. The company now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $4.76 to $4.80, up from the previous guidance range of $3.64 to $3.73, and revenue is projected at $2.43 billion to $2.44 billion, also above the prior guidance of $2.34 billion to $2.36 billion.
Chief Financial Officer Michael Berry stated, “We continue to see strong momentum in the Atlas platform. Usage growth has remained relatively stable during the first three quarters of this year, with seasonal patterns comparable to the same period in fiscal year 2025. Our existing customer base is performing robustly, while we are also maintaining good momentum in acquiring new customers.” Berry also noted that the company now expects its cloud-based developer data platform, Atlas, to achieve approximately 27% year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter, surpassing the earlier forecast of “just over 20%”. Additionally, the company’s non-Atlas business annual recurring revenue continues to grow at a “steady” pace, with visibility into several large multi-year deals that have already been finalized this quarter or are expected to be concluded soon.
Subscription revenue increased from $512.2 million in the same period last year to $609.1 million; service revenue grew by 12% year-over-year, reaching $19.2 million. During the conference call, Berry noted that Atlas revenue grew by 30% year-over-year, accounting for 75% of total revenue, compared to 68% in the same period last year. “The growth in Atlas usage remains consistent with last year’s growth rate, driving accelerated revenue growth for the third consecutive quarter as well as an increase in absolute revenue amounts.”
Guggenheim reiterated its "Buy" rating on MongoDB, raising the target price from $400 to $450. In a report, analyst Howard Ma stated: "Atlas’ third-quarter revenue growth accelerated to 30%, meeting buy-side expectations and exceeding market consensus by more than 3 percentage points. Although it was slightly below our higher expectation of 31% year-over-year growth (which is also our forecast for Atlas' fourth-quarter revenue growth), we believe that given the company's significantly above-expectation guidance for the fourth quarter, investors should no longer consider this target unattainable. Management noted strong demand from large enterprises in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa." Howard Ma added: "We currently expect MongoDB’s total revenue for fiscal 2026 to grow by 23%, with total revenue for fiscal 2027 growing by at least 25%. Atlas business revenue will maintain steady growth of 29%."
Citi maintained its "Buy" rating on MongoDB with a target price of $440. Led by Tyler Radke, Citi analysts noted in their report: "Although there are some front-loaded revenue recognition factors in the fourth quarter, the overall performance indicates continued acceleration in business and profit growth momentum, reflecting improved execution and enhanced AI momentum. We expect that with accelerating growth and another strong earnings revision, the stock price will continue to rise."
$CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ Surged over 17% within the week, included in Wedbush's AI 30 Core Stocks List.
Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst renowned as a 'tech bull,' has once again revised his signature "IVES AI 30" list of core artificial intelligence stocks, adding $CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ In Wedbush's view, concerns about an AI bubble are 'clearly exaggerated.' The firm forecasts that global AI-related capital expenditures will reach approximately USD 550–600 billion by 2026, dubbing 2026 the 'Year of AI Monetization'—when corporate AI deployment transitions from experimentation to full-scale implementation.
$CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ is an AI cloud computing company that started in 2017 with Ethereum mining operations centered on GPUs. It later pivoted in 2019 to become a provider of high-performance cloud computing power. Today, it focuses on offering GPU cloud infrastructure and management software for AI model training, inference, and other workloads. Its Nasdaq debut in March 2025 marked one of the largest AI infrastructure IPOs to date.
Wedbush included it in the 'AI 30,' citing two key factors: CoreWeave has secured large clients like OpenAI through long-term cloud computing contracts, positioning itself as one of the direct beneficiaries of 'AI CAPEX budgets'; $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ 、 $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ compared to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, CoreWeave is entirely designed around GPU-intensive AI workloads, achieving differentiation in flexibility, speed of deploying the latest GPUs, and cost structure. From Wedbush’s portfolio perspective, CoreWeave serves as an extension and complement to AI hardware leaders such as NVIDIA and Broadcom, representing a high-growth target within the AI infrastructure value chain.
In 2025, CoreWeave signed a five-year cloud computing contract worth approximately USD 22.4 billion with OpenAI and further reached an AI cloud infrastructure agreement of up to USD 14.2 billion with Meta Platforms, while also collaborating with $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ have signed multi-year agreements for computing power and data platform cooperation. This means that $CoreWeave (CRWV.US)$ revenue visibility and certainty are relatively high for the coming years, with potential for high double-digit to triple-digit year-over-year growth as new data centers and GPU clusters come online.
On the other hand, the weaker-performing stocks this week are as follows:
Editor/Hao
