NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 12:07 ET — Regular session
- Apple shares eased about 0.2% in late-morning trading on the final session of 2025
- Mega-cap tech was mixed, with Microsoft and Broadcom down while Nvidia edged higher
- Thin holiday liquidity and the Federal Reserve’s 2026 rate path remained the main near-term focus
Apple shares dipped on Wednesday as investors continued to trim exposure to large technology names into the end of the year.
The iPhone maker’s stock was down 0.2% at $272.63, after trading between $271.78 and $273.58.
The move mattered because Apple’s enormous weighting in major indexes often makes it a bellwether for shifts in risk appetite on quiet days, when small flows can move prices more than usual.
U.S. stocks were modestly lower in holiday-thin trading, extending a late-December drift that has undercut expectations for a “Santa Claus rally,” a seasonal pattern of strength typically seen in the final five trading days of the year and the first two sessions of January. Reuters
The Invesco QQQ Trust, a widely followed proxy for the Nasdaq, was down about 0.3%, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Dow-linked DIA ETF were each lower by roughly 0.2%–0.3%.
Other mega-cap names were mixed, with Microsoft down about 0.3% and Broadcom off about 0.7%, while Nvidia rose about 0.8%.
Apple had slipped 0.3% in the prior session as a tech-led dip stalled a late-year push, Reuters reported, after a run in heavyweight growth stocks encouraged some investors to take profits.
“It’s just a healthy rebalancing of allocations more so than an emotionally driven sell-off (in tech),” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. Reuters
Investors have also been calibrating positions for 2026 after the Fed’s latest meeting minutes highlighted how policymakers weighed risks before cutting rates, with the central bank’s next decision due at its January 27–28 meeting.
Trading conditions are set to stay choppy around the holiday calendar, with U.S. stock markets closed on Jan. 1 and set to reopen on Jan. 2.
For Apple-specific catalysts, the next major scheduled test is earnings, with market calendars estimating the company will report late January, around Jan. 29, though the company has not posted an official date on those calendars.
When Apple does report, investors typically focus on iPhone demand coming out of the holiday quarter, services revenue trends, and margins, which can swing on currency and supply costs.
Apple is up about 9% year-to-date, a smaller gain than some AI-linked peers after a year when enthusiasm around AI helped drive broader indexes to records, with Nvidia up more than 40% in 2025, according to Reuters data.
For the rest of Wednesday’s session, traders said the near-term driver for Apple was likely to remain the same as for the wider tech complex: year-end positioning in thin trade, and headlines that shift expectations for growth and interest rates into 2026.
