NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 13:26 ET — Regular session
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 116.75 points, or 0.24%, at midday on the year’s final trading day.
- Apple and Microsoft fell, keeping pressure on the blue-chip index as traders pared risk in holiday-thin markets.
- A surprise drop in weekly jobless claims kept focus on how quickly the Fed will cut rates in 2026.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped on Wednesday, extending a late-December pullback as tech heavyweights weighed in thin New Year’s Eve trade. At 12:00 p.m. ET, the Dow fell 116.75 points, or 0.24%, to 48,243.94.
The dip matters now because it comes in the final hours of 2025, when year-end rebalancing and lighter liquidity can magnify moves in headline indexes. U.S. stock markets are open for normal hours on Dec. 31 but shut on Jan. 1 for New Year’s Day, before reopening on Jan. 2.
The Dow can be especially sensitive on quiet days because it is price-weighted, meaning higher-priced components carry more sway over its point move than lower-priced ones. IBM and Boeing were among the biggest drags early, MarketWatch reported, noting that a $1 move in any Dow component translates into roughly a six-point shift in the index.
Investors also weighed fresh labor-market data that landed earlier than usual ahead of the holiday. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell by 16,000 to 199,000 for the week ended Dec. 27, the lowest since late November and below economists’ expectations for 220,000, a Labor Department report showed.
“I do not expect that the last few days will have so much bearing on the performance of the next year,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity, pointing to profit-taking when liquidity was low. MarketScreener
The stumble has traders watching whether the market ends up short of a “Santa Claus rally,” a calendar-period bounce that typically refers to gains over the last five trading days of the year and the first two sessions of January. The stretch often coincides with light volume, which can leave prices more reactive to single-stock moves.
Even with the late-year wobble, U.S. benchmarks were set to post another strong year. The Dow was up about 14% for 2025, with the S&P 500 up about 17% and the Nasdaq up about 21%, according to Barron’s.
Within the Dow, Nike outperformed after Chief Executive Elliott Hill bought about $1 million of company stock, a move investors often treat as a confidence signal from management. Nike’s shares jumped after the purchase, MarketWatch reported.
The bond market was set to close early, trimming another source of liquidity late in the day. SIFMA recommended a 2:00 p.m. Eastern close for U.S. fixed-income markets on Wednesday ahead of the New Year’s Day holiday.
Looking beyond the holiday break, investors’ next major waypoint is the Federal Reserve’s late-January policy meeting. The central bank’s calendar shows the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled for Jan. 27–28.
The Dow’s near-term direction into the close is likely to hinge on whether tech and other high-priced components stabilize, given the index’s construction. Traders also keep an eye on round-number levels like 48,000 as a shorthand gauge of sentiment, even when volumes are thin.
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