#us-stocks

#us-stocks

Trading is expected to be light ahead of the New Year's Day holiday, when markets will be closed. With just one trading day left before the year ends, most big investors have closed out their positions for the year and trading volume has been very thin. Even after their mini post-Christmas pullback, the indexes are on pace for strong gains for the year.

While the S&P 500 has notched a terrific year by all accounts, with gains of roughly 16%, the underlying foundation of this really is being tested by a series of significant policy shifts.

The markets are attempting gains this morning with all three of the major stock market averages seeing green out of the gate. Investors and traders have been battling some weak economic data, not least a skyrocketing unemployment rate, that has dampened sentiment in the final stretch of 2025. If they can hold onto today's gains, not only would it break the Nasdaq Composite's multi-day losing streak but momentum could shift in time for the year-end performance tally, which currently stands up 19.3% year-to-date.

The U.S. stock market is drifting near its record levels on Wednesday following mixed reactions to profit reports from Macy's, Marvell Technologies, and other companies. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and pulled within 0.7% of its all-time high set in late October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 174 points, or 0.6%, as of 11:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% early Wednesday and neared the all-time high it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 127 points after setting its own record the day before, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%. Technology stocks swung back upward. Advanced Micro Devices rallied after its CEO said the chip company is expecting better than 35% annual compounded growth in revenue over the next three to five years. Nvidia, the dominant player in chips used for artificial-intelligence technology, also rose.

Stocks are off to a lower start on Wall Street and on track for their first weekly loss in the last four. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% in the early going Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 174 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.8%. Markets are reacting to the latest quarterly reports from U.S. companies. Payments company Block, which operates the Square and Cash App businesses, sank after turning in results that fell short of forecasts. Exercise equipment maker Peloton jumped after its results beat estimates. Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market.

The price of gold, which topped $4,000 per ounce for the first time on Tuesday, continued to rise, trading up nearly $53, or 1.3%, at $4,057.50. Investors have traditionally seen gold as a hedge against high inflation. Its price has soared more than 50% this year because of governments' huge debt loads, political uncertainties and anticipation that the Fed will continue to trim its benchmark lending rate after cutting for the first time this year in September.

(Bloomberg/Natalia Kniazhevich) US stocks advanced, driven by tech shares, after an OpenAI share sale valued the artificial intelligence company at an $500 billion. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 9:33 am in New York, while the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.5%. Stocks climbed even as the US government shutdown stretched into a second day, causing a delay of weekly jobless claims and factory orders data. A separate report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed that US employers dialed back hiring plans in September,

Stocks got some help from a report showing that inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.6% in July, according to the measure of prices that the Federal Reserve likes to use. While that's above the Fed's 2% target, and it's more painful than any household would like, it was precisely what economists had forecast. That offered some hope that the Fed could continue cutting interest rates in order to give the economy a boost.

Google dodged a breakup that would have included selling its Chrome browser after a judge ruled against the government's toughest proposals in the biggest antitrust case in three decades. The decision was also a big win for Apple, as Google will still be allowed to pay its partners. Apple gets about $20 billion a year for making Google search the default on iPhones. Alphabet shares rallied 8%, touching a record high; Apple rose 2%.

The moves were stronger in the bond market, where Treasury yields rose after a report forced Wall Street to scale back hopes that the Federal Reserve may soon deliver relief by cutting interest rates. The report suggested growth in U.S. business activity is accelerating and hit its fastest rate so far this year. That's good news for the economy, but the preliminary data from S&P Global also said tariffs helped push up average selling prices at the fastest rate in three years. That's a discouraging sign for inflation.

President Trump is taking recent stock-market highs as a sign investors approve of his threats to slap tariffs on trading partners—and so far, the markets are proving him right.