New York — December 9, 2025
US investors are crowding into a tight cluster of high-conviction themes today: artificial intelligence chips, blockbuster media and software deals, obesity drugs, and speculative AI small caps.
Coming into Tuesday’s session (December 9), Wall Street is just off record highs. On Monday, the S&P 500 slipped about 0.3%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell roughly 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq eased 0.1%, but all three remained within striking distance of their all-time peaks. [1]
At the same time, traders are bracing for the Federal Reserve’s final policy decision of 2025, widely expected to deliver a third rate cut this year, while digesting a surprise policy shift from Washington that opens the door for Nvidia’s advanced AI chips to go back into China. [2]
Against that backdrop, a handful of names dominated US trading volumes in Monday’s regular session (December 8) and continue to set the tone for markets on December 9.
Market Snapshot: Fed Meeting and AI Geopolitics Drive Sentiment
The macro story behind today’s most active stocks is straightforward:
- Indexes just below records: The S&P 500 closed Monday at about 6,846, only around half a percent below its record, while the Dow and Nasdaq also pulled back modestly. [3]
- Fed decision on deck: Futures markets are pricing in a high probability that the Fed will cut its policy rate by another 25 basis points on Wednesday, taking it to roughly 3.5%–3.75%. [4]
- Rates and dollar steady: The 10‑year Treasury yield is hovering near 4.16%–4.2%, while the dollar index is roughly flat and gold remains elevated above $4,200 an ounce. [5]
Layered on top of that, President Donald Trump has now cleared Nvidia’s flagship H200 AI accelerators for export to “approved customers” in China, in exchange for a hefty 25% cut of related revenue to the US government.
That single decision goes a long way to explaining why Nvidia and the broader AI chip complex sit at the top of today’s most active US stocks list.
The 20 Most Active US Stocks: Who’s Dominating the Tape?
Based on consolidated volume data for Monday’s session (December 8), these were the most active US‑listed stocks by share volume , according to StockAnalysis:
- Paranovus Entertainment Technology (PAVS) – ~1.32B shares, +33.6%
- Nvidia (NVDA) – ~204M shares, +1.7%
- Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) – ~167M shares, +4.4%
- Wave Life Sciences (WVE) – ~147M shares, +147%
- Confluent (CFLT) – ~146M shares, +29%
- Cemtrex (CETX) – ~133M shares, +130%
- iBio (IBIO) – ~114M shares, +39%
- BigBear.ai (BBAI) – ~103M shares, −3.8%
- Netflix (NFLX) – ~101M shares, −3.4%
- Plug Power (PLUG) – ~98M shares, −1.8%
- Strive Asset Management (ASST)
- Cheer Holding (CHR)
- Intel (INTC) – ~94M shares, −2.7%
- Ondas (ONDS)
- Tesla (TSLA) – ~69M shares, −3.4%
- SoFi Technologies (SOFI)
- Beyond Meat (BYND)
- Banco Bradesco (BBD)
- Opendoor Technologies (OPEN)
- Ford Motor (F)
Alongside these names, another high‑volume cluster sits in the mega‑cap tech space: Nvidia, Netflix, Tesla, Apple, Alphabet, Broadcom and Microsoft all feature among the most active, with Nvidia alone trading more than 200 million shares. [6]
Below, we break down the key stories, forecasts and analyst views behind the most‑watched tickers.
Nvidia (NVDA): AI Chip Champion Back in China
Why it’s active: Nvidia shares gained about 1.7% to close near $185.55 on Monday, on more than 200 million shares traded , making NVDA the second‑most active stock in the US market by volume.
Catalyst 1 – H200 export approval
Trump’s decision to allow Nvidia to export its powerful H200 AI accelerators to Chinese customers under strict licensing and a 25% revenue-share arrangement has electrified the stock. Reuters, the Guardian and multiple financial outlets confirm that the Commerce Department is finalizing the details, effectively rolling back the most restrictive Biden-era export limits for Nvidia’s top-tier AI GPUs.
The move:
- Reopens a key growth market where Nvidia previously said it had gone from “95% of the Chinese market to 0%” due to export bans.
- Signals that similar permissions could be extended to AMD and Intel , giving the entire US AI chip complex a potential revenue boost.
Catalyst 2 – Long‑term AI narrative dominance
Fresh analysis from TECHi highlights Nvidia’s towering position in AI hardware:
- Market cap around $4.5 trillion as of December 2025.
- Roughly 10 gigawatts of GPU capacity committed to OpenAI alone—far ahead of AMD’s contracts.
- Forward P/E around 24x , still rich but actually below many high‑growth peers.
Wall Street forecasts compiled in that analysis point to ~48% sales growth by fiscal 2027 , supported by multi‑trillion‑dollar data‑center capex plans across hyperscalers.
How analysts are framing it
Recent commentary from Investing.com describes Nvidia’s export win as a “victory in China” that helps the company sell the chips Beijing actually wants, even as security concerns linger in Washington.
For traders scanning “most active stocks today,” Nvidia is the purest expression of three overlapping themes:
- AI infrastructure spending
- US-China tech policy
- Mega‑cap leadership in the S&P 500
Tesla (TSLA): Heavy Volume on Morgan Stanley Downgrade
Why it’s active: Tesla traded about 69 million shares Monday, closing down 3.4% near $439.58, and ranked 15th on the US most-active list.
Catalyst – Morgan Stanley slams the brakes
In a new note published Tuesday, Morgan Stanley:
- Downgraded Tesla stock to “hold / equal‑weight” for the first time since 2023.
- Set a price target of $425 , implying potential downside of roughly 6–7% from Friday’s close.
- Argued that Tesla’s ambitions in robotics and AI, including its Optimus humanoid robot, are already fully reflected in the current share price. [7]
The bank highlights that:
- Tesla is now the second‑most expensive stock in the S&P 500 , at about 210x projected 12‑month earnings , behind only Warner Bros. Discovery, with Palantir in third place on this metric. [8]
- North American EV unit sales could decline about 12% next year even as Tesla’s AI and robotics narrative continues to capture headlines. [9]
Context for 2025
Despite Monday’s drop, Tesla shares are still up around 10% year‑to‑date , after soaring 63% in 2024 and 102% in 2023. [10]
For traders watching “most active stocks today,” the takeaway is clear:
TSLA remains a high‑beta AI and EV proxy, but valuation discipline is starting to matter again as the Fed edges rates lower and growth expectations normalize.
Streaming Wars Go Nuclear: WBD, Netflix and Paramount
Few stories scream “Wall Street drama” as loudly as the bidding war over Warner Bros. Discovery .
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Netflix (NFLX)
- WBD surged about 4.4% to $27.23 on volume of ~167 million shares, making it the third‑most active US stock.
- Netflix (NFLX) fell around 3.4% to $96.79 on more than 100 million shares traded. [11]
The reason: media M&A on a historic scale.
Originally, Netflix reached an $82–83 billion enterprise-value deal to buy Warner Bros’ film and TV studios plus HBO and the Max streaming platform, following a planned separation of Discovery.
Then, on Monday, Paramount Skydance launched a hostile $108.4 billion bid for all of Warner Bros.’ Discovery, offering $30 per share in cash —about $18 billion more in cash value than the Netflix proposal.
Key points from Reuters’ reporting:
- Paramount’s deal covers the entire WBD empire, including cable networks; Netflix’s bid only targets the studio and streaming assets.
- Financing would involve the Ellison family, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and several Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.
- The WBD board has said it will review the offer but is not yet changing its recommendation in favor of Netflix.
- President Trump has already expressed skepticism about a Netflix-WBD combination, calling it potentially problematic for competition.
As a result, WBD and Paramount (PSKY) are now entrenched near the top of the “most active stocks” rankings, while NFLX trades lower on deal uncertainty and antitrust fears.
Wave Life Sciences (WVE): Obesity Drug Data Sparks 147% Surge
Why it’s active: Among larger‑cap biotech names, Wave Life Sciences is the standout , with shares rocketing about 147% to $18.52 on Monday and trading roughly 147 million shares – the fourth‑highest US volume.
Catalyst – Gene‑silencing obesity therapy shows promise
Wave reported positive interim Phase 1 data from its INLIGHT trial of WVE‑007 , an investigational gene‑silencing therapy targeting the INHBE gene in obesity:
- A single 240 mg dose in healthy obese participants produced:
- 9.4% reduction in visceral fat after three months
- 4.5% reduction in total body fat
- 3.2% increase in lean mass
- The placebo group showed no meaningful changes in these measures.
- The drug maintained >75% reductions in serum Activin E through day 85, supporting the idea of once‑or twice‑yearly dosing.
Wave argues that a long‑acting therapy that cuts visceral fat while preserving muscle could address key weaknesses of GLP‑1 drugs (like semi‑weekly injections and loss of lean mass).
Analyst reaction
- Raymond James raised its price target from $14 to $21 and reiterated an Outperform rating.
- Leerink Partners reportedly lifted its target to $28 , also with an Outperform stance.
- Consensus forecasts compiled by StockAnalysis show an average 12‑month price target around $19 and a “Strong Buy” rating from a dozen analysts, with targets spanning roughly $10 to $26.
Even after Monday’s explosion, those targets imply either modest upside (on some models) or a meaningful pullback, underscoring how binary early‑stage biotech can be and why WVE is a magnet for speculative volume today.
Confluent (CFLT): IBM’s $11 Billion Bet on Real‑Time Data for AI
Why it’s active:Confluent jumped about 29% to $29.87 on Monday, with roughly 146 million shares changing hands — fifth on the US most-active list.
Catalyst – All‑cash takeover by IBM
IBM has agreed to acquire Confluent, a leader in real‑time data streaming built around Apache Kafka, in an all‑cash deal valuing the company at $11 billion, or $31 per share.
Key deal details:
- Represents a substantial premium to Confluent’s pre‑announcement share price.
- IBM says Confluent will give it an end‑to‑end “smart data platform” tailored for AI, by keeping data “clean and connected” across apps and systems—vital for agentic AI tools.
- The transaction is expected to close by mid‑2026 , pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Confluent is a classic M&A‑driven “most active stock”:
- Risk‑arbitrage funds trade the spread between the current price and the $31 cash offer.
- Analysts debate whether IBM overpaid at about 6.7x trailing sales , versus IBM’s own ~4.5x sales multiple, and what this means for software deal valuations into 2026.
Carvana (CVNA): S&P 500 Inclusion Fuels a Comeback Story
Why it’s top‑of‑mind (even if not top‑20 volume): Carvana shares have become another high‑volume favorite after S&P Global announced the online used‑car retailer will join the S&P 500 index on December 22.
According to Auto Remarketing and other outlets:
- Carvana’s stock, which once crashed 99% from its 2021 peak on bankruptcy fears, now trades near record highs and carries an ~$87 billion market cap , larger than General Motors or Ford.
- The S&P 500 inclusion has accelerated a massive rally, with pre‑market surges and heavy inflows as index funds prepare to buy.
Carvana’s story is a reminder that index rebalancing can turn once-shunned names into some of the most actively traded stocks on Wall Street.
BigBear.ai (BBAI) and the Speculative AI Fringe
Why it’s active:BigBear.ai traded just over 102 million shares Monday, placing it eighth on the most active list, even though the stock slipped about 3.9% to $6.56 .
A MarketBeat recap highlights why BBAI sits at the intersection of hype and risk:
- Consensus rating is “Hold” , with an average price target around $6.33 and individual targets up to $8.
- The company missed EPS expectations last quarter (‑$0.07 vs. ‑$0.06 forecast) despite a revenue beat; revenue was still down about 20% year‑over‑year .
- Net margin is deeply negative (around ‑275% ), and analysts expect a full‑year loss of ~‑$0.28 per share.
Yet volume remains massive, underscoring how small‑cap AI names can become trading vehicles for retail and momentum funds, even when fundamentals are shaky.
The same dynamic appears in micro‑cap rockets near the top of Monday’s activity board—Paranovus (PAVS), Cemtrex (CETX), iBio (IBIO) and others—all posting double‑or triple‑digit percentage moves on outsized volumes, often without commensurate fundamental news.
Blue‑Chip Workhorses: Apple, Intel, Microsoft and Friends
Beyond the headline‑grabbing narratives, household‑name mega‑caps also featured prominently on the “most active stocks today” lists:
- Apple (AAPL) – ~38M shares, modestly lower on the day.
- Alphabet (GOOGL) – ~34M shares, down about 2.3%.
- Broadcom (AVGO) – ~30M shares, up nearly 2.8%.
- Microsoft (MSFT) – ~22M shares, up around 1.6%.
Broadcom and Microsoft, in particular, are in focus after reports that Microsoft may shift parts of its custom AI chip work from Marvell to Broadcom , boosting AVGO while pressing Marvell shares.
These giants often appear on most‑active screens simply because of their index weight and institutional ownership , but today they are also direct participants in the AI and data‑center build‑out that underpins the Nvidia story.
What the “Most Active Stocks Today” Are Signaling
Looking across the full list, several clear themes emerge:
- AI remains the market’s center of gravity
- Nvidia, Broadcom, Microsoft, Intel and BigBear.ai all rank among the most‑traded names.
- The H200 export approval is a fresh catalyst that can re‑accelerate AI capex in China and ripple through global suppliers.
- Obesity and metabolic health are the new biotech battleground
- Wave Life Sciences’ gene‑silencing approach offers a radically different dosing profile versus GLP‑1s, and analysts are rushing to re‑rate the stock higher.
- Deal‑making is back in a big way
- IBM–Confluent, Netflix–WBD and Paramount’s hostile counterbid are all multi‑trillion‑dollar M&A stories dominating volume and headlines.
- Index changes and rebalancing matter
- Carvana’s entry into the S&P 500 illustrates how index inclusion can transform liquidity and sentiment , turning a former distressed stock into a top‑traded large cap.
- Valuation discipline is creeping back into AI leaders
- Tesla’s downgrade and Palantir’s recent corrections show a shift from pure momentum to earnings‑based scrutiny , even for the sector’s darlings.
What to Watch Next
For investors and traders tracking the most active stocks on the US market today , a few catalysts stand out over the next 24–72 hours:
- Federal Reserve rate decision (Wednesday): A widely expected 25 bps cut is less important than the Fed’s guidance on 2026 and beyond. Any hint of slower or faster cuts could swing richly valued AI and growth stocks.
- Regulatory response to Nvidia’s China deal: Congress and national‑security hawks may push back on H200 exports; additional conditions—or copycat permissions for AMD and Intel—could move the entire AI chip basket.
- Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war: Shareholder, regulatory and political reaction to Paramount’s $108.4B hostile bid versus Netflix’s earlier offer will keep WBD, PSKY and NFLX on the most active list.
- Follow‑through in WVE and CFLT: Traders will watch whether Wave Life Sciences and Confluent can hold their gains or if profit‑taking hits, especially as risk‑arb funds fine‑tune probabilities around IBM’s acquisition and biotech investors parse the obesity data in more detail.
Final Thoughts and Risk Reminder
“Most active stocks today” are where sentiment, liquidity and narrative collide , but volume alone doesn’t tell you whether a trade is attractive.
- Many of today’s leaders — Nvidia, Tesla, WBD, Wave Life Sciences, Confluent and BigBear.ai — sit at the crossroads of AI, media consolidation, obesity therapeutics and geopolitical policy , all of which can change quickly.
- Valuations for several of these names are extremely demanding , and sharp reversals are common when expectations reset or deals face pushback.
References
1. www.timesleaderonline.com, 2. www.investopedia.com, 3. www.timesleaderonline.com, 4. www.investopedia.com, 5. www.investopedia.com, 6. www.investing.com, 7. www.fxleaders.com, 8. www.fxleaders.com, 9. www.fxleaders.com, 10. www.fxleaders.com, 11. www.investopedia.com
