The Daily Breakdown takes a closer look at Starbucks as the stock tries to clear resistance and regain its 200-day moving average.
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Weekly Outlook
We made it through last week’s big options expiration, with the S&P 500 barely positive for the week (+0.1%) but up nicely on Thursday and Friday (+1.7%). The Nasdaq 100 fared slightly better for the week (+0.6%), while Bitcoin continues to hover in the high-$80Ks and as gold sits just below its record high of approximately $4,831 from October.
Last Week’s Movers
Big movers last week included Nike, Micron, Oracle, Moderna, and Advanced Micro Devices. However, the coming week has the potential to be noticeably quieter. The stock market will be closed on Thursday, Dec. 25, and will close early at 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 24. Given the midweek holiday, investors are likely to anticipate subdued, low-volume trading on Friday, Dec. 26.
Events to Watch
Friday, Dec. 26 will mark the final weekly options expiration of the year, before expirations roll into the 2026 calendar. That said, there will still be several short-dated (same-day) expirations between then and Dec. 31. Outside of options activity, the calendar is relatively light. Highlights include a GDP report on Tuesday, along with the final consumer confidence reading of the year.
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The Setup — Starbucks
Starbucks has struggled to gain traction in 2025, with shares down roughly 3% year to date. In many ways, this has been the recent story for SBUX. The stock fell 3.2% in 2023 and another 5% in 2024 — not accounting for the dividend, which currently yields about 2.8%.
In our Deep Dive earlier this year, we also discussed Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Niccol, who previously orchestrated a tremendous turnaround at Chipotle. Bulls are hoping he can deliver a similar outcome at Starbucks. The key question is whether that turnaround will begin to gain meaningful traction in 2026, as earnings are expected to resume growth.
Starbucks briefly cleared $90 earlier this week, then faded lower on Friday. Still, it was the stock’s first close above its 200-day moving average since July. Further, SBUX was able to clear the $86 to $87 area, which was support in August, but has been stiff resistance since September. If Starbucks stays above this zone and gains momentum over the 200-day, bulls could see further gains in the weeks ahead. However, a move back below these measures could put further pressure on the stock.
Options
As of December 19th, the options with the highest open interest for SBUX stock — meaning the contracts with the largest open positions in the options market — were the January $90 calls.
Investors who are bullish could consider calls or call spreads as one way to speculate on further upside, while bearish investors could consider puts or put spreads to speculate on a further move to the downside. For options traders, it may be advantageous to have adequate time until the option’s expiration.
To learn more about options, consider visiting the eToro Academy.
What Wall Street’s Watching
ORCL
Shares of Oracle jumped more than 6% on Friday on news that TikTok’s US division will be run by a joint venture, which will include Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX (which is based in Abu Dhabi). The deal is slated to close on Jan. 22. However, the stock has struggled lately. Despite Friday’s rally, shares gained just 1% for the week and remain lower by ~36% over the last three months. Check out the chart for ORCL.
NKE
Nike tumbled 10.5% on Friday — hitting its lowest level since May — after the athletic apparel firm reported disappointing results. While its Q2 earnings and revenue actually beat analysts’ expectations amid strength in its North America business (revenues were up 9%), weakness in Greater China (-17%) and tariff-reduced profits weighed on investor sentiment. CEO Elliott Hill noted, “we’re in the middle inning of our comeback.” Dig into the fundamentals for NKE.
SILVER
Silver’s streak keeps going, as it cleared $67 an ounce on Friday while hitting a fresh record high. For the week, silver prices gained another 8.5% as it rallied for a fourth straight week. Within that stretch, it’s up more than 34% — which has also given a big boost to the SLV ETF, the largest silver ETF by assets.
Disclaimer:
Please note that due to market volatility, some of the prices may have already been reached and scenarios played out.
