NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 10:06 ET — Regular session
- Alphabet’s Class C shares fell about 0.7% in early trading, tracking a pullback in heavyweight tech
- Traders are watching Tuesday’s Federal Reserve minutes for clues on the 2026 rate path
- Google’s Gemini Live voice mode rolled out a major update, but macro and year-end positioning set the near-term tone
Alphabet’s Class C shares (GOOG.O) fell about 0.7% to $312.80 in early Monday trading, giving back ground as U.S. tech stocks eased at the start of the final week of the year.
The move matters now because Alphabet is one of the largest U.S. companies by market value, and small swings in mega-cap tech can tug broader indexes in holiday-thinned trade. Investors have leaned heavily on AI-linked technology winners in 2025, making positioning vulnerable to profit-taking. 1
Rate expectations are also back in focus. Growth stocks such as Alphabet tend to be sensitive to bond yields because investors value future profits more when borrowing costs fall.
Wall Street opened lower on Monday as heavyweight technology stocks gave up some of last week’s gains, Reuters reported. 2
Peers were mixed. Microsoft (MSFT.O) was up about 0.1%, while Meta Platforms (META.O) fell about 0.9%.
In global markets, investors have been leaning into expectations for further U.S. rate cuts next year. “We’re not seeing runaway inflation risk as a base case so we’re still thinking the Fed has room to cut,” Fidelity International multi-asset portfolio manager Becky Qin said. 1
The next near-term catalyst is Tuesday’s release of the Federal Reserve’s meeting minutes — the detailed account of the central bank’s last policy meeting — scheduled for 2:00 p.m. ET on December 30. 3
Fed communications have been moving markets as traders price the pace of easing. Reuters reported the Fed cut its benchmark rate to a 3.5%–3.75% range this month and money markets are pricing two more quarter-point cuts by September. 1
On the company front, Google has kept a steady drumbeat of AI product updates. Gemini Live — the company’s voice-based, conversational mode for its Gemini assistant — received what Google described as its “biggest update ever,” making it more natural and conversational, WIRED reported. 4
For investors, the question is how quickly those features translate into sustained engagement and paid usage, and whether Google can protect search and advertising demand as AI features reshape how people find information.
Alphabet also remains closely watched for the balance between AI investment and profitability. In its most recent quarterly filing, Alphabet reported revenue of $102.3 billion for the third quarter, up 16% year-on-year, with double-digit growth across Search, YouTube and Cloud. 5
At Monday’s price, Alphabet’s market value stood at about $2.94 trillion and the stock traded at roughly 24 times earnings, a commonly used valuation gauge that compares share price to profit per share.
With few major corporate earnings on the calendar this week, investors are likely to take direction from rate signals and year-end flows into the close of 2025, alongside routine economic releases. 6
Traders will also be watching whether the year-end dip in liquidity amplifies index moves. In that setup, Alphabet’s next decisive catalysts — ad trends, cloud momentum and the pace of AI-related spending — shift into early 2026.
