Wall Street ended a light-volume post-Christmas session nearly unchanged on Friday, with few catalysts to fuel much conviction one way or the other. All three major U.S. stock indexes closed essentially flat, but logged weekly gains. Market participants watched for signs that a seasonal phenomenon called the “Santa Claus rally,” in which the S&P 500 advances through the last five trading days of the current year and the first two in the new one, a period that began on Wednesday and will run through January 5. Such a rally would bode well for stock performance in 2026.
Just three trading days remain in a turbulent year in which tariff jitters, simmering geopolitical tensions, and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence-related momentum stocks took investors on a bumpy ride, but one in which the three major indexes, led by the tech-laden Nasdaq, are all on track to register double-digit percentage gains.
According liminary data, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.05 points, or 0.03%, to end at 6,930.00 points, while the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC lost 20.21 points, or 0.09%, to 23,593.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 19.70 points, or 0.04%, to 48,711.46. Year-to-date, communication services .SPLRCL , technology .SPLRCT and industrials .SPLRCI have outperformed the broader market. Real estate .SPLRCR seems to be the only sector that will have lost ground in 2025.
NVDA.O climbed after the AI chipmaker agreed to license chip technology from startup Groq and hire its CEO. Target TGT.N rose after the Financial Times reported the retailer is facing activism from hedge fund Toms Capital Investment Management, which has made a significant investment in the company. U.S.-listed shares of precious metal miners such as First Majestic AG.N, Coeur Mining CDE.N and Endeavour Silver EXK.Nadvanced as silver XAG= and gold XAU= prices touched fresh record highs. GOL/ YTD sector performance https://reut.rs/48XY…
Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Diane Craft.
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