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By Damian Troise
December 23, 2025 — 5.16am
Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street at the start of what’s expected to be a quiet holiday week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent and is just below the all-time high it set earlier this month. The Dow Jones rose 267 points, or 0.6 per cent, in early afternoon trade. The Nasdaq composite climbed 0.6 per cent.
Wall Street rose to kick off the holiday-shortened week. Credit: Bloomberg
The Australian sharemarket is set to advance, with futures at 4.54am AEDT pointing to a rise of 13 points, or 0.2 per cent, at the open. The ASX added 0.9 per cent on Monday. The Australian dollar was trading at US66.55¢ at 5.12am AEDT.
The broader market eked out a slight gain last week in what has been a choppy month. Technology companies, especially those focused on artificial intelligence, have been the main force behind the market’s oscillations. The direction of AI-related stocks will likely determine whether the market closes out December with gains or losses.
“If a Santa Claus rally does kick in this year, St. Nick’s gift bag will likely need to be full of positive tech sentiment,” wrote Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.
The gains on Monday were broad, with technology companies and banks leading the way. JPMorgan Chase rose 1.4 per cent and Nvidia rose 1.1 per cent.
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Uber rose 2.5 per cent and Lyft rose 3.8 per cent after announcing plans to bring robotaxi services to London next year.
Paramount Skydance rose 5.1 per cent. The company sweetened its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle and father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. He is putting up billions of dollars to back the deal as part of the latest move in Paramount’s bidding war against Netflix.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose 3 per cent and Netflix fell 0.8 per cent.
Dominion Energy slipped 4.7 per cent after the Trump administration said it is pausing leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects. They include Dominion’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
Gold and silver touched records and oil prices jumped after the US Coast Guard said it was pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean.
Gold prices rose 1.9 per cent and are hovering around $US4,470 per ounce, adding to their consistent gains throughout the year. Silver prices were up about 1.6 per cent.
Crude oil prices in the US rose 2.2 per cent and prices for Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 2.2 per cent.
Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.16 per cent from 4.15 per cent late Friday.
Markets in Asia gained ground while markets in Europe slipped.
Markets in the US will close early on Wednesday for Christmas Eve and remain closed on Thursday for Christmas. The short week for trading includes several economic reports that could shed more light on the condition and direction of the US economy.
On Tuesday, the government releases the first of three estimates on gross domestic product, a reflection of how the broader US economy fared in the third quarter. On Wednesday, the Labor Department will release its weekly data on applications for jobless benefits, which stands as a proxy for US layoffs.
The Conference Board offers up results from its December consumer confidence survey on Tuesday as well.
The upcoming reports follow a mix of updates last week that show inflation remains elevated and consumer confidence has diminished over the last year. Overall, the job market has been slowing and retail sales have weakened.
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The ongoing and wide-ranging US trade war has been hanging over consumers and businesses already squeezed and worried by higher prices. The mix of stubbornly high inflation and a weaker jobs market has also put the Federal Reserve in a more difficult policy position moving forward.
The Fed has cut its benchmark interest rate at its last three meetings, despite inflation that has remained stubbornly above its 2 per cent target. Fed officials have grown increasingly concerned about the slowing job market, pushing them to trim rates. Cutting interest rates to bolster the economy because of a weak job market could fuel inflation, however.
Wall Street is mostly betting that the Fed will hold steady on interest rates at its meeting in January.
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