NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 09:50 ET — Regular session
- Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 0.2% in early trade after Monday’s tech-led pullback
- Investors await the Federal Reserve’s December meeting minutes due at 2 p.m. ET
- Chicago PMI rose to 39.8, beating forecasts but still signaling contraction
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 91 points, or 0.2%, at 48,370.86 by 9:45 a.m. ET, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also edged lower, Google Finance data showed.
The subdued tone follows Monday’s decline, when the Dow dropped 249 points as investors took profits in heavyweight technology and AI-linked shares heading into year-end. “This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust. Reuters
Markets now turn to the Federal Reserve’s minutes from its Dec. 9-10 meeting, due at 2 p.m. ET, for clues on how policymakers see the path for rates in 2026 after cutting to a 3.50%-3.75% target range with a rare three dissents.
On the data front, the Chicago Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 39.8 in December, topping a 36.3 forecast but remaining below 50, the level that separates expansion from contraction, according to an Investing.com economic calendar.
Boeing was among the closely watched Dow components after the Pentagon said it awarded the company an $8.6 billion contract tied to the F-15 Israel Program, including 25 new aircraft with options for more.
Moves in a handful of high-priced Dow constituents can sway the index more than their market value would imply because the Dow is price-weighted; MarketWatch noted that a $1 move in a component stock translates into about a 6.16-point swing in the index.
The early dip also lands at a sensitive moment for positioning: the Dow’s day range on Google Finance put traders’ near-term markers around 48,300 on the downside and near 48,460 on the upside.
With liquidity typically thinner in the final sessions of the year, intraday moves can look sharper than the news flow suggests, especially if investors rebalance portfolios ahead of January.
Later this morning, traders are expected to keep an eye on whether the Dow can stabilize near its early lows as attention shifts to the Fed minutes release, which often moves rate-sensitive sectors and the dollar when the policy outlook is contested.
Beyond Tuesday’s minutes, the next U.S. macro catalyst is weekly jobless claims, which the Labor Department’s unemployment insurance office lists for release on Wednesday, Dec. 31, at 8:30 a.m. ET due to the holiday-week schedule.
The immediate test for equities is whether the Dow can recover Monday’s closing area and keep the year-end rally from fraying further as investors head into the New Year with policy uncertainty back in focus.
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