Stocks slip on Wall Street as 2025 winds down
[December 30, 2025] By
DAMIAN J. TROISE
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped in quiet trading on Wall Street Monday to
kick off another holiday-shortened week.
The losses have little impact on the broader annual gains for major
indexes as they close out their final days of the year. There are two
trading days left before the year ends. Markets in the U.S. will be
closed Thursday for New Year’s Day.
The S&P 500 fell 24.20 points, or 0.3%, to 6,905.74. The benchmark index
is still up more than 17% for the year and it remains on track for its
eighth monthly gain in a row.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 249.04 points, or 0.5%, to
48,461.93. The Nasdaq composite fell 118.75 points, or 0.5%, to
23,474.35.
Big technology stocks with outsized valuations were among the heaviest
weights on the market. Nvidia fell 1.2% and Broadcom fell 0.8%. Investor
optimism about the future of artificial intelligence has been driving
the sector mostly higher all year and pushing the broader market to a
series of records.
Technology stocks have been more unsteady as the year heads to a close,
though. They mostly slipped in November and have only notched modest
gains through December. Nvidia and several other companies focusing on
AI or benefiting heavily from the developing technology have become some
of the most valuable in the world. Investors have seemingly become more
skeptical about whether the eventual payoff will make the hefty
investments worthwhile.
Energy stocks gained ground along with rising oil prices. U.S. benchmark
crude jumped 2.4% to settle at $58.08 per barrel. The price of Brent
crude, the international standard, rose 2.1% to settle at $61.94 a
barrel. Exxon Mobil rose 1.2%.
Gold and silver prices pulled back from their recent sharp gains after
the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the world’s largest trading
floors for commodities, asked traders to put up more cash to make bets
on precious metals.
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 The price of gold fell 4.6%, though
prices for the precious metal are still up about 64% for the year.
Silver prices slumped 8.7%, but they have still more than doubled
overall in 2025.
Treasury yields fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year
Treasury fell to 4.11% from 4.13% late Friday.
Treasury yields have fallen significantly from the start of the
year. That's partly due to initial anticipation for cuts and
eventual cuts to interest rates in 2025 from the Federal Reserve.
The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate three times later
in the year. At the same time, it started facing a more complicated
economic situation, where inflation remained stubbornly high while
the job market started slowing.
The central bank cut rates with the aim of offsetting the impact on
the economy from a slowdown in jobs growth. That risks heating up
inflation that is already stubbornly above the central bank's target
rate of 2%. Interest rate cuts could boost the economy by making
loans less expensive, but that benefit could be nullified by rising
inflation stunting economic growth.
Markets in Europe and Asia were mixed. Shares in Taiwan were higher
even after China’s military said it was conducting drills around the
self-governed island that Beijing claims as its territory. Taiwan's
benchmark Taiex gained 0.9%, but the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up
early gains, falling 0.7%.
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Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this story.
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