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S&P 500 closed Friday 12/26 at 6930, down 0.03% # Gold: +1.4%, Silver: +11.1% both to new records
This discussion thread is pinned.
Last edited Fri Dec 26, 2025, 05:54 PM - Edit history (227)
In the future I will only be doing these twice a week: Tuesday and Friday, unless it's really interesting.10 Year TREASURY YIELD 4.14% on 12/26 - no change from Wednesday, It was 4.19% on Friday 12/12 (It local-bottomed out at 3.95% 10/22/25, its lowest point since April.)
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ETNX/
Bitcoin: $87,453 @ 453p ET down less than 0.1% from Wednesday. It was $90,381 last Friday, It has wiped out all its gains for 2025 -- it ended 2024 at $93,429. It's in bear market territory, down more than 20% from it's $126,000+ all-time high in October (actually down 31% from that level) https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD/
Market news of the day: https://finance.yahoo.com/
How to find the latest Yahoo Finance "stock market today" report if it's not at the finance.yahoo page (note that the headline displayed there does not include the "Stock Market Today" words): click on
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22stock+market+today%22+site%3Afinance.yahoo.com&oq=%22stock+market+today%22+site%3Afinance.yahoo.com
If the link doesn't work for you,
Google: "stock market today" site:finance.yahoo.com
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/stock-market-today-dow-sp-500-nasdaq-notch-solid-weekly-gains-to-begin-santa-claus-rally-period-210121255.html
Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq notch solid weekly gains to begin 'Santa Claus rally' period, Yahoo Finance 12/26/25
US stocks were little changed on Friday but managed to post weekly gains ahead of the final trading week of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped just below its record close from Wednesday. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) both fell below the flat line amid thin post-Christmas trading.
All three major averages gained more than 1% during the shortened holiday trading week.
Meanwhile, precious metals continued a torrid rally, with gold (GC=F) and silver (SI=F) futures rising to fresh records amid fresh geopolitical tensions and continued weakness in the dollar (DX=F).
Stocks ended the shortened Christmas Eve session with both the benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow at record highs ((actually both were down today by a teensy 0.03% and 0.04% respectively --progree)). All three major indexes notched their fifth consecutive victory ((ignoring the miniscule drop today --progree)) as Wall Street entered into the so-called Santa Claus rally period — the last five trading sessions of the year and the first two of the new year.
The S&P 500 is up nearly 18% so far this year, on track for its sixth year of 15%-plus gains out of the past seven.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq has paced gains with an over 20% rise in 2025, despite briefly entering into a bear market after President Trump imposed his most sweeping tariffs in April.
No major economic data or earnings results are expected to close out the holiday-shortened week.
((Scrolling down the page -progree))
Nvidia (NVDA) stock gained more than 1% on the heels of a $20 billion licensing deal with Groq, the maker of specialized AI chips.
Article: "Nvidia's Groq deal underscores how the AI chip giant uses its massive balance sheet to 'maintain dominance'"
On Friday, gold futures rose above $4,550 to hover at or near record highs, capping a year marked by more than 50 such records.
Meanwhile, silver also jumped over $75 per ounce, extending its year-to-date gains to 150% in a parabolic rally driven by concerns about physical shortages during a time of robust industrial demand. Platinum (PL=F) and copper (HG=F) have also soared to records this year.
The metals took a leg higher after geopolitical tensions intensified recently, with the US staging a blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers and launching a strike against ISIS in northwestern Nigeria.
US stocks were little changed on Friday but managed to post weekly gains ahead of the final trading week of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) dropped just below its record close from Wednesday. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) both fell below the flat line amid thin post-Christmas trading.
All three major averages gained more than 1% during the shortened holiday trading week.
Meanwhile, precious metals continued a torrid rally, with gold (GC=F) and silver (SI=F) futures rising to fresh records amid fresh geopolitical tensions and continued weakness in the dollar (DX=F).
Stocks ended the shortened Christmas Eve session with both the benchmark S&P 500 and blue-chip Dow at record highs ((actually both were down today by a teensy 0.03% and 0.04% respectively --progree)). All three major indexes notched their fifth consecutive victory ((ignoring the miniscule drop today --progree)) as Wall Street entered into the so-called Santa Claus rally period — the last five trading sessions of the year and the first two of the new year.
The S&P 500 is up nearly 18% so far this year, on track for its sixth year of 15%-plus gains out of the past seven.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq has paced gains with an over 20% rise in 2025, despite briefly entering into a bear market after President Trump imposed his most sweeping tariffs in April.
No major economic data or earnings results are expected to close out the holiday-shortened week.
((Scrolling down the page -progree))
Nvidia (NVDA) stock gained more than 1% on the heels of a $20 billion licensing deal with Groq, the maker of specialized AI chips.
Article: "Nvidia's Groq deal underscores how the AI chip giant uses its massive balance sheet to 'maintain dominance'"
On Friday, gold futures rose above $4,550 to hover at or near record highs, capping a year marked by more than 50 such records.
Meanwhile, silver also jumped over $75 per ounce, extending its year-to-date gains to 150% in a parabolic rally driven by concerns about physical shortages during a time of robust industrial demand. Platinum (PL=F) and copper (HG=F) have also soared to records this year.
The metals took a leg higher after geopolitical tensions intensified recently, with the US staging a blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers and launching a strike against ISIS in northwestern Nigeria.
-----
Trump (Dec. 23): "I want my new Fed Chairman to lower Interest Rates if the Market is doing well, not destroy the Market"
. . . “In the old days, when there was good news, the Market went up,” Trump wrote. “Nowadays, when there is good news, the Market goes down, because everybody thinks that Interest Rates will be immediately lifted to take care of ‘potential’ Inflation.”
What an idiotic statement -- for example, there has not been a single increase in 2 1/2 years, while there were 4 cuts in the last half of 2024 and 3 cuts in 2025 -- more on:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3587618
Scroll down to see earlier in the day reports
And scroll down to the bottom of this post to look at the amazing Oil price graph
See Reply #1 to this thread for last Tuesday's many reports -- the big BLS jobs report, the ADP private payrolls report, and the retail sales report (there are also summaries of these in the "Recent and Coming Up, Reports" section just below. I will start putting older reports into Reply #1 in the next few days)
========
Recent and Coming Up, Reports (I'm also keeping the Dec 16 - Dec 19 ones for now
https://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendar
The government reports are all seasonally adjusted, as are most, if not all, of the non-government reports the media covers, so please don't post comments about how the numbers look good (or not as bad as expected) only because of Christmas season hires or Christmas shopping -- seasonal factors like that have been adjusted for
TUE DECEMBER 16:
* The long-delayed big Jobs report (featuring the headline non-farm payroll jobs and unemployment rate) (govt). Expected: +50,000 jobs in November and 4.5% unemployment rate. Actual: -105,000 in October and +64,000 in November for a net drop of jobs over these 2 months of 41,000. Nonfarm payroll jobs averaged only 17k/month over the last 7 months and 22k over the last 3 months. These are seasonally adjusted numbers. The raw numbers (i.e. not seasonally adjusted numbers) are 204k/month and 416k/month respectively.And the unemployment rate is 4.6% in November, up from 4.4% in September. LBN thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143583215
There was not, and never will be a separate October jobs report. The payroll stuff Establishment survey was taken and will be included in the November report (as it was in the Decmber 16 report). The household survey that produces the unemployment rate was not done in October, and so the October unemployment rate will be a blank in the records forever.
* Retail Sales for October (delayed, govt) - result: +0.1% in September and +0.0% in October, in nominal dollars. But in inflation-adjusted dollars, it was -0.2% in September, and will be -0.3% in October if October's month-over-month inflation rates comes in the same as September's 0.3%. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/retail-sales-flat-in-october-as-uncertainty-tempers-consumer-spending/ar-AA1SsP9b
* S&P flash U.S. services and manufacturing PMI's (non-govt) - I haven't looked at this yet
THUR DECEMBER 18:
* Weekly unemployment insurance claims for the week ending Dec 13 (it was 236,000 for the week ending Dec 6) - In the week ending December 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 224,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 236,000 to 237,000. (govt)
* Consumer price index for November (govt) (note: the one for October was cancelled. The November one was originally scheduled for December 10 before the Fed's rate-setting meeting, but alas was delayed until 8 days after the meeting) - result: 2.7% year-over-year, a cooling from the 3.0% year-over-year reported in the September report, and a 0.2% increase over the last 2 months. LBN thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143584377
FRIDAY DECEMBER 19
* Existing home sales (non-govt) - I haven't looked at yet
* Consumer Sentiment final (non-govt) - here's an article:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/consumer-sentiment-shows-substantial-decline-from-last-year-amid-higher-prices-tough-job-market-160618145.html
TUESDAY DECEMBER 23
* GDP Q3 first estimate (delayed report, normally released late September). (govt) -- it came in at a 4.3% annualized rate, well above the 3.3% rate economists were expecting. Various factors cited in media: an acceleration of EV purchases prior to the Sept 30 expiration of tax credits. A lot of spending by big tech companies on AI (investment spending boosts the GDP number). A substantial rise in exports (up 8.8% annualized rate) and a small drop in imports -- both these boost the GDP number, Federal spending also played a sizable role, a reflection of the large uptick in defense spending as well as buyouts for federal workers. Also, it reflects the "K-shaped" economy -- higher-income people flush with growing stock market wealth increased their spending, while lesser-income people struggled with higher prices and a weakening job market.
LBN thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143587157 ## From the source: https://www.bea.gov/news/2025/gross-domestic-product-3rd-quarter-2025-initial-estimate-and-corporate-profits
* Consumer Confidence (Conference Board, non-govt) - result: the 5th straight month of decline. The worst since April, and at about the same level as seen in the 2020 pandemic year. Except there is no microbe-driven pandemic, it's all Trumpdemic now. Consumers’ assessments of their current economic situation tumbled 9.5 points to 116.8.
LBN thread (see graph in reply #2) https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143587258
* Durable goods orders - I haven't looked at yet
* Industrial production and capacity utilization - I haven't looked at yet
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 24
* Weekly unemployment insurance claims - 224,000 was reported December 18. 214,000 was reported today, December 24, a drop of 10,000 . But continuing claims rose by 38,000 to 1.92 million (govt)
NO REPORTS DECEMBER 25 NOR DECEMBER 26
MONDAY DECEMBER 29
* Pending home sales
TUESDAY DECEMBER 30
Case-Shiller home prices index
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 31
* Weekly unemployment insurance claims, It was 214,000 in last week's report
Revised release dates for Bureau of Labor Statistics reports: https://www.bls.gov/bls/2025-lapse-revised-release-dates.htm
BEA.GOV news release schedule (they produce reports on the GDP, Retail Sales, PCE Inflation (the Fed's favorite inflation gauge), and Personal Consumption and Income: https://www.bea.gov/news/schedule
=============================================
The S&P 500 closed Friday December 26 at 6930, down 0.03% for the day,
and up 19.8% from the 5783 election day closing level,
and up 15.6% from the inauguration eve closing level,
and up 17.8% year-to-date (since the December 31 close)
and UP 0.6% from its recent October 28 high. It set a new high December 23 and again December 24. Today, Dec. 26, it is a miniscule 0.03% below the record.
S&P 500
# Election day close (11/5/24) 5783
# Last close before inauguration day: (1/17/25): 5997
# 2024 year-end close (12/31/24): 5882
# Trump II era low point (going all the way back to election day Nov5): 4983 on April 8
# October 28 all-time-high: 6890.90, surpassed by today, December 24's all-time high of 6932.00
# Several market indexes: https://finance.yahoo.com/
# S&P 500: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history/
Bitcoin
Bitcoin ended 2024 at $93,429. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD/
Bitcoin's all-time interday high: 126,198 on Oct. 6
Bitcoin's all-time closing high: 124,753 on Oct 6.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD/history/
========================================================
I'm not a fan of the DOW as it is a cherry-picked collection of just 30 stocks that are price-weighted, which is silly. It's as asinine as judging consumer price inflation by picking 30 blue chip consumer items, and weighting them according to their prices. But since there is an automatically updating embedded graphic, here it is. It takes several, like 6 hours, after the close for it to update, like about 10 PM EDT.
(If it still isn't updated, try right-clicking on it and opening in a new tab. #OR# click on https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/ ).
The Dow closed Wednesday at 48,731, and it closed Friday at 48,711, a drop of 0.04% (20 points) for the day
https://finance.yahoo.com/
DOW: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/
. . . . . . https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/history/
DOW
# Election day close (11/5/24) 42,222
# Last close before inauguration day: (1/17/25): 43,488
# 2024 year-end close (12/31/24): 42,544
DJIA means Dow Jones Industrials Average. It takes about 6 hours after the close to update, so check it after 10 PM EDT. Sometimes it takes a couple days (sigh)
I don't have an embeddable graph for the S&P 500, unfortunately, but to see its graph, click on https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/
While I'm at it, I might as well show Oil and the Dollar:
Crude Oil
US Dollar Index (DX-Y.NYB)
If you see a tiny graphics square above and no graph, right click on the square and choose "load image". There should be a total of 3 graphs. And remember that it typically takes about 6 hours after the close before these graphs update.
🚨 ❤️ 😬! 😱 < - - emoticon library for future uses
19 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
I look at it often. 
If I had a nickel for every time I’d said that. 
I am far from liking anything about crypto. I try to avoid things that are easy to buy and difficult to sell. I do monitor it, tho. Due to its position in the techbro’s DOW -> AI -> Crypto financial ouroboros.