S&P 500 Nears 7,000 as Santa Claus Rally Window Opens: Dow and Nasdaq Cap Strong 2025 With Fed Minutes Ahead
U.S. stocks headed into the final stretch of 2025 clinging to record territory—an unusually calm setup for a week that’s famous for thin trading, year-end portfolio adjustments, and a seasonal pattern investors watch closely: the “Santa Claus rally.” On Friday, December 26, Wall Street finished essentially flat after a multi-session climb, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing at 48,710.97, the S&P 500 at 6,929.94, and the Nasdaq Composite at 23,593.10. The moves were tiny—down fractions of a percent—but the bigger story was the calendar: the market is now inside the Santa Claus rally window and just about 1% away