Tech Weighs on US Stocks as Buoyant Year Nears End: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks and bonds slipped along with gold and silver on the last day of 2025, bringing a subdued close to an otherwise buoyant year across asset classes that saw US equities post their third straight double-digit gain.
The S&P 500 extended a stretch of post-Christmas losses, paring the benchmark’s advance for 2025 to roughly 17%. Even so, the index is on track for its longest yearly winning streak of gains since 2021. The Nasdaq 100 was down 0.4%. Laggards include big-tech names like Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc.
Silver plunged as a run of heightened volatility featuring price moves of 5% or more entered a fourth day.
Investors have reaped strong returns this year in a market that has been powered by optimism about the vast economic potential of artificial intelligence and primed by Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. It hasn’t been a smooth ride, though, with traders weathering swings triggered by a range of forces including US trade policies, geopolitical tensions, concern over lofty valuations and some uncertainty around the path of central-bank monetary policy.
Beyond the advances in stocks, US Treasuries are poised to notch their biggest gains since 2020, while gold and silver remain on track for their best year since 1979. Crypto has been the big outlier, with Bitcoin facing a loss for the year after erasing an earlier rally that had sent it to a record in October.
“Describing 2025 as ‘resilient’ might be an understatement,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial. “The economy showed remarkable strength by overcoming higher inflation, a slowing labor market, fewer rate cuts than originally expected, and a sharp rise in the effective tariff rate. Despite these challenges, growth remained steady without slipping into recession.”
The year’s momentum has faded in the final days of December, with traders delaying big decisions until after the holiday period, having already banked strong returns.
“After an excellent year in equity markets, and with positioning close to highs in late November, portfolio and fund managers may have been closing their bets and realigning them to benchmark,” said Roberto Scholtes, head of strategy at Singular Bank. “Our base case is for the bull run to continue, albeit with more volatility and resulting in mid-single digit returns.”
Gold and silver stumbled Wednesday in an otherwise banner year for precious metals. After an almost unstoppable rise, the two metals endured a series of swings in December that erased some gains as investors booked profits.
What Bloomberg strategists say…
“2025 was the year when diversification finally paid off. Equities delivered, but metals took the crown on erosion of confidence and a repricing of policy risk.”
—Brendan Fagan, Macro Strategist, Markets Live
For the full analysis, click here.
There was little market movement even after the release of US jobless claims data. Applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week to one of the lowest levels this year. Initial claims decreased by 16,000 to 199,000 in the week ended Dec. 27, according to Labor Department data released Wednesday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 218,000 applications.
Treasuries ticked lower, with the 10-year yield at 4.14%.
The dollar fluctuated after a three-day stretch of wins. The recent advance did little to prevent the greenback from heading toward its worst annual retreat in eight years, with investors saying more declines are coming if the next chief of the Federal Reserve opts for deeper interest-rate cuts than currently expected.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin traded near $87,800. The digital currency has settled into a range of roughly $85,000 to $95,000 following a crash in October that has put it on pace for a first annual loss in three years. After kicking off 2025 with a rally that was spurred by optimism about the crypto-friendly policies of the second Trump administration, Bitcoin was hit by the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs.
Oil headed for its steepest annual loss since the start of the pandemic in 2020, in a year that has been dominated by steadily rising supplies across the globe. Brent steadied close to above $61 a barrel, with traders’ near-term focus on an OPEC+ meeting at the weekend, a bearish US industry report and American policies toward Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
Corporate News:
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. plans to once again reject a takeover bid from Paramount Skydance Corp., according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. Among the board’s concerns, Paramount has yet to increase its offer, which Warner Bros. earlier rejected as inferior to Netflix’s offer. Coinstar LLC, the coin-exchange and cryptocurrency business owned by Apollo Global Management Inc., plans to repay bondholders next month as part of its surprise sale to a company that oversees investments for natives of Alaska’s far north Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% as of 12:42 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.3% The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% The MSCI World Index fell 0.3% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1736 The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.3451 The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 156.81 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 0.8% to $87,466.31 Ether rose 0.1% to $2,970.24 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.14% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.85% Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 4.48% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2% to $57.84 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.4% to $4,323.92 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
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