Early Look

Monday, December 22, 2025

After weakness just a few days ago in tech raised concerns into year end, S&P futures are now higher a third straight day led by a good bounce in tech as Santa Claus may indeed be coming to Wall Street. Trading volumes are expected to dry up this week given the Christmas Holiday (Wall Street closes early on Wednesday at 1:00 for Christmas Eve and closes all day on Thursday), but futures off to a good start overnight. Meanwhile, in commodities, oil rose as President Trump intensified a blockade on Venezuela. Gold and silver soared to all-time highs on the escalating geopolitical tensions and bets on Fed rate cuts.  There is no major US economic data today though bond auctions this week could add to volatility. U.S. markets are on pace for good gains this year as optimism around AI, a resilient U.S. economy and monetary policy easing put the three main indexes on course for their third consecutive year of gains, with the S&P 500 up more than 15%.

U.S. stocks finished mixed last week as the S&P 500 gained 0.11%, the Nasdaq climbed 0.48%, and the Dow fell -0.67% in a week filled with AI funding jitters and geopolitics. The S&P 500 once again flirted with its 50-DMA support again this week before closing well above and less than 100 points from all-time highs reached just 2 weeks ago. S&P Energy sector (XLE) fell -3% last week following a decline in crude prices on Russia-Ukraine peace deal talks, and NatGas firms fall on milder weather forecasts. REITS (XLRE) fell -1% on the week along with Consumer Staples (XLP) -0.8% while Consumer Discretionary (XLY) gained nearly 1% last week behind Tesla (TSLA) strength hitting all-time highs. Technology (XLK) also recovered late week behind a bounce in Oracle, and data center, and infrastructure Ai plays, ending the week +0.63%. Micron (MU) shares surged late week after upbeat results, forecast on booming AI chip demand, and helping the tech space rebound.

In Asian markets, The Nikkei Index jumped 895 points to 50,402, the Shanghai Index added 26 points to 3,917, and the Hang Seng Index advanced 111 points to 25,801. In Europe, the German DAX is down -7 points to 24,280, while the FTSE 100 is down -40 points to 9,857. Japan 10-year bond yields hit 26-year high after BOJ rate rise; Yen weakens due to lack of clarity over neutral rate, prospect of slow increases. The U.S. dollar is showing signs of stabilization at the end of a difficult year, but many anticipate a renewed decline in 2026 due to expected Federal Reserve rate cuts and strengthening global growth. February gold prices rise 1.25% or $55 to $4,442 an ounce – new all-time highs while silver prices rise 2.38% or $1.61 to trade above $69 an ounce.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 183.04 points, or 0.38%, to 48,134.89
• The Nasdaq Composite spiked 301.26 points, or 1.31%, to 23,307.62
• The Russell 2000 Index advanced 21.56 points, or 0.86% to 2,529.42

• 1:00 PM ET US Treasury to sell $69B in 2-year notes

• Earnings After the Close: none

• British households saved less in the July-to-September period of this year as they felt the hit from higher taxes but still increased their spending, according to official data. Gross domestic product grew by only 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, in line with its initial estimate and forecasts by economists polled by Reuters. Growth in the April-to-June period was revised down to 0.2% from a previous estimate of 0.3%.

• Rocket Lab (RKLB) awarded $816m prime contract to build missile- defense satellite constellation.
• T1 Energy (TE) shares rise after signing a three-year deal to supply Treaty Oak Clean Energy with 900 megawatts of solar modules from its planned G2_Austin solar cell facility. Under the agreement, Treaty Oak locks in a supply of silicon solar panels that it expects will meet the new federal rules on foreign-made content.
• Shares of gold and silver miners advance in the market as prices of both metals climb to record highs. Gold miner Newmont (NEM) gains 2.6%, while silver miner Coeur Mining (CDE) is up 3.6%.

• INmune Bio Inc (INMB) files for common stock offering of $65 mln shares of common stock.
• U.S. President Donald Trump and nine major pharmaceutical companies announced deals that will slash the prices of their medicines for the government’s Medicaid program and for cash payers. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Merck (MRK), and Roche’s (RHHBY) U.S. unit Genentech have struck deals. Novartis (NVS), Amgen (AMGN), Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi (SNY) and GSK (GSK) have also signed on.

• Disney’s (DIS) ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Falls Short of Domestic Box Office Sales Expectations. The third installment of James Cameron’s fantasy adventure raked in $88M across 3,800 screens in the U.S. and Canada.
• Netflix (NFLX) secures $25B of new financing for its Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) deal: A $5B unsecured revolver plus $20B of delayed draw term loans ($10B 2 year + $10B 3 year).
• Radware (RDWR) announced a significant new multi-year customer win with a leading global SaaS enterprise software company.