NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 17:33 ET — After-hours
- The Dow closed down 303.77 points, ending the year with a fourth straight daily decline.
- Treasury yields rose after jobless claims fell below forecasts, pressuring rate-sensitive stocks.
- Traders are looking to early-January data and the Fed’s late-month meeting for the next policy signal.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 303.77 points, or 0.63%, to 48,063.29 on Wednesday, extending Wall Street’s losing streak into the final trading day of 2025. The S&P 500 dropped 0.7% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.8%. 1
The pullback mattered because it came as investors closed the books on a year of strong gains and positioned for fresh economic data that could reset expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts. Thin year-end liquidity — when fewer large investors are active — can exaggerate moves.
The New York Stock Exchange will be closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day, a calendar break that leaves markets with fewer sessions to digest incoming data and headlines before January trading fully resumes. 2
On the macro front, the Labor Department reported initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 199,000 for the week ended Dec. 27, down 16,000 from the prior week. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 220,000. 3
Bond yields climbed after the report. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.17% from 4.13% late Tuesday, while the two-year yield — which tends to track expectations for Fed policy — increased to 3.48% from 3.45%, according to an AP report. 4
Energy and technology stocks were among the day’s biggest losers, Reuters reported, with Microsoft down 0.8%. Nike rose about 4% after CEO Elliott Hill disclosed he bought roughly $1 million worth of shares, a regulatory filing showed. “It’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, pointing to profit-taking — selling to lock in gains — when liquidity is low. 5
The Dow is a price-weighted index — meaning higher-priced stocks have more influence — so large moves in a handful of components can sway the headline number even when the broader market is mixed.
With 2025’s gains heavily tied to big technology and AI-linked names, traders are watching whether the market broadens out in early 2026 or stays concentrated in a narrow group of winners.
The next major U.S. manufacturing read is the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing PMI report for December data, due at 10:00 a.m. ET on Monday, Jan. 5. The government’s December employment report follows on Friday, Jan. 9 at 8:30 a.m. ET, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics schedule. 6
The Fed’s next policy meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27–28, and markets will be gauging whether officials validate expectations for further easing after 2025’s cuts — or push back if inflation stays sticky and the labor market remains firm. 7
Technically, the Dow finished the year just above the 48,000 level, a round number traders often treat as a near-term reference point. A decisive break above or below that area in early January could shape positioning once normal volumes return.
