Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq waver with Wall Street set to put a bow on roller-coaster 2025

The US banal marketplace wavered successful the archetypal minutes of trading connected Wednesday arsenic Wall Street looked to measurement retired of an eventful, roller-coaster trading twelvemonth with sizable gains and into 2026.

The bluish chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) shed astir 0.1%, portion the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) held conscionable hardly beneath level aft concisely crossing into the green.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 27, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Wednesday morning, fell to 199,000 from the erstwhile week's revised 215,000 claims. Continuing claims fell to 1.86 cardinal from 1.91 million.

Initial jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 27 fell by 16,000 from the erstwhile week to 199,000 successful the past large economical information indicator of the year.

The figures travel arsenic a astonishment to the downside for Wall Street. Economists had predicted that claims would emergence to 218,000 from 214,000, according to statement estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Continuing claims, which number the fig of radical continuing to person unemployment benefits, besides fell to 1.86 cardinal from 1.91 cardinal successful different astonishment to the downside. Economists had predicted the level would autumn little steeply to 1.90 million.

The four-week moving mean of claims ticked upward to 218,750 from past week's 217,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' information release. Claims for the erstwhile week ended Dec. 20 were revised to 215,000 from the primitively stated 214,000.

The information merchandise seemed to person little-to-no interaction connected predictions of whether the Federal Reserve volition chopped involvement rates astatine its January meeting, with traders continuing to terms successful an 85% accidental that the Fed volition clasp rates steady, according to CMEGroup's FedWatch.

Though the Fed's dual mandate focuses connected some maximum employment and unchangeable prices, the Jay Powell-chaired assemblage spent 2025 mostly basing its cues connected the labour marketplace implicit ostentation data.

The unemployment information merchandise marks the past large portion of economical information that volition beryllium published successful 2025.

Sugar (SB=F) prices are headed for their largest yearly diminution since 2017 arsenic ample accumulation astir the satellite has pushed proviso implicit demand.

The superior futures declaration for sweetener futures traded successful New York, Sugar has shed astir 21% successful what has been mostly a pugnacious twelvemonth for cultivation commodities.

Brazil, the world's largest exporter of the sweetener commodity, has maintained precocious accumulation levels, portion chap powerhouse India has managed to notch a comeback successful its accumulation aft seeing levels autumn sharply past twelvemonth owed to adverse upwind conditions.

Elsewhere successful the cultivation world, different "soft" commodities similar cocoa, potatoes, and atom person each seen their prices plunge.

Futures contracts connected cocoa (CC=F) and atom person fallen by 48% and 32%, respectively, portion prices connected potatoes person shed much than 77% since the twelvemonth started, according to pricing information from Trading Economics.

Livestock and java person been notable exceptions to that rule. Feeder cattle and unrecorded cattle person gained 33% and 20%, respectively, since the twelvemonth began, portion java (KC=F) futures person picked up 10%.

The US dollar (DX-Y.NYB) edged little connected Wednesday, acceptable to headdress disconnected its weakest twelvemonth since 2017, arsenic President Trump's tariff docket fuels concerns astir the US system and a much dovish Federal Reserve successful 2026 adds unit to the greenback.

The dollar scale has dropped implicit 9% twelvemonth to date, according to Yahoo Finance data. Strategists broadly deliberation that weakness volition persist adjacent twelvemonth arsenic galore of the worries that drove it little stay successful play.

The communicative was antithetic for the euro (^XDE), which gained 13%, and the lb (^XDB), which gained 7% connected the year. Both currencies are connected way for their biggest yearly gains successful 8 years.

Bloomberg reports:

Read much here.

Bloomberg's Carmen Reinicke has a bully look contiguous astatine immoderate of the market's biggest winners and losers this year.

Some are acquainted — Palantir (PLTR) is prominently featured arsenic a winner, for instance. Others mightiness crook heads. Did you cognize that Sandisk (SNDK), Western Digital (WDC), and Seagate Technology (STX) were 3 of the apical 4 performers successful the S&P 500 this year?

Read the afloat rundown here.

Our Myles Udland is retired with a large recap of the twelvemonth successful markets, featuring a month-by-month look astatine 2025's biggest stories and market-moving events.

He writes:

There's a batch much successful there. Go work it.