Wall Street and Broad St. signs are seen as New York Stock Exchange building decorated for Christmas at the Financial District in New York City, United States on December 16, 2020. Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
This is CNBC's Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox. Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Here comes Santa Claus?
2. Epstein files
This photo illustration taken in Washington, DC, on December 19, 2025 shows redacted documents after the US Justice Department began releasing the long-awaited records from the investigation into the politically explosive case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
The Justice Department released some of its investigative files tied to sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein on Friday. The release came on the deadline set by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but it did not include all files as was instructed by the legislation. The DOJ's website now has an "Epstein Library" with a search box for keywords in the newly released files. However, CNBC found the search box did not immediately work as intended. A number of documents were reportedly removed from the Justice Department's site. A photo featuring President Donald Trump was later reposted after backlash.
3. Job search
Josh Woodward, VP of Google Labs, addresses the crowd during Google's annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California on May 20, 2025. Camille Cohen | AFP | Getty Images
Google hasn't been looking far to staff up its AI teams. CNBC's Jennifer Elias reported that about one-fifth of all AI software engineers hired by the tech giant this year were boomerangs, a term used for ex-employees who return. That comes as 16-year Google veteran Josh Woodward has taken the helm of Gemini, the crown jewel of Alphabet's AI ambitions, this year. The 42-year-old Oklahoma native also kept his role managing Google Labs. Alphabet also made the news this weekend for a different business: its driverless ride-hailing service Waymo. The company had temporarily suspended operations in the San Francisco Bay Area following power outages.
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