The stock market's final session of 2025 was low in volume and largely devoid of catalysts, leaving the S&P 500 (-0.7%), the Nasdaq Composite (-0.8%), and the DJIA (-0.6%) to steadily drift lower in broad fashion. 

The major averages finished December mixed, with the outperformance of many cyclical stocks pushing the DJIA (+0.7% month-to-date) higher, while the S&P 500 (-0.1% month-to-date) finished flattish, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (-0.5% month-to-date) finished lower. 

Today's retreat encompassed a wide variety of stocks, with all eleven S&P 500 sectors finishing lower. Sector losses ranged from 0.4% (communication services) to 1.0% (real estate), with most sectors finishing at session lows amid a late-afternoon pickup in selling activity. 

The top-weighted information technology sector (-0.9%) was one such sector that lagged late in the trade. NVIDIA (NVDA 186.50, -1.04, -0.55%) previously held a gain, which helped limit losses earlier in the session following a Reuters report that the company approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 303.89, +4.31, +1.44%) to increase production of its H200 chip amid growing demand in China. A separate Reuters report stated that TSM, which is not a component of the S&P 500, was granted an annual U.S. approval for chip-making exports to China.

All of the information technology sector's components closed with a loss. 

The consumer discretionary sector (-0.8%) at least had one component trade higher, being NIKE (NKE 63.71, +2.52, +4.12%), by far the best-performing S&P 500 name today. The stock was lifted by a disclosure that showed CEO Elliot Hill purchased 16,388 shares of common stock, which follows a 50,000-share purchase by Apple (AAPL 271.86, -1.22, -0.45%) CEO and Nike Director Tim Cook one week ago. 

The materials sector (-0.9%) was another underperformer, as precious metal prices slid following the CME Group raising the margin requirements on precious metals futures for the second time in a week. Silver led the retreat, settling today's session $7.30 lower (-9.4%) at $70.63 per ozt, while gold settled $44.00 lower (-1.0%) at $4,342.30 per ozt. Precious metals producer Newmont Corporation (NEM 99.85, -2.01, -1.97%) was unsurprisingly a laggard. 

Outside of the S&P 500, the Russell 2000 (-0.8%) and S&P Mid Cap 400 (-1.1%) furthered the recent trend of underperformance in comparison to their larger-cap counterparts. 

Stocks across the market closed out the year on a subdued note, as this week's broad pullback erased most of last week's gains and stalled the Santa Claus rally soon after it began. The near-term trend skews negative as the market searches for fresh catalysts. Still, stocks posted strong gains in 2025, with the major averages all capturing double-digit gains for the year. 

U.S. Treasuries finished 2025 on a modestly lower note, with the 10-year note yield (+4 basis points to 4.17%, -40 basis points in 2025) settling near the midpoint of this year's range, while the 2-year note yield (+3 basis points to 3.48%, -77 basis points in 2025) finished not far above its 2025 low as the Fed made three cuts to the fed funds rate range since the end of 2024. Today's session was largely uneventful, save for a couple waves of selling that lifted yields to their highest levels of the week.

Bond and equity markets will be closed for the New Year's Day holiday tomorrow, followed by a full session on Friday. 

• Nasdaq Composite: +20.4% YTD
• S&P 500: +16.4% YTD
• DJIA: +13.0% YTD
• Russell 2000: +11.3% YTD
• S&P Mid Cap 400: +5.9% YTD

Reviewing today's data:

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending December 27 decreased by 16,000 to 199,000 (Briefing.com consensus 226,000) from last week's revised rate of 215,000 (from 214,000), while continuing claims for the week ending December 20 decreased by 47,000 from last week's revised rate of 1.913 million (from 1.923 million) to 1.866 million.
  • The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims decreased unexpectedly, coming in below 200,000 for just the second time this year. This should be encouraging to a market that has grown more sensitive to signals from the labor market.