NEW YORK, Jan 2, 2026, 09:50 ET — Regular session
- The Dow Jones’s main proxy ETF (DIA) was down about 0.1% in early trading, while the Nasdaq-100 tracker (QQQ) led gains.
- Wall Street opened higher to start 2026, after a late-2025 slide that left December in the red for the S&P 500.
- Traders are looking ahead to next week’s U.S. payrolls report and Jan. 13 inflation data for clues on Federal Reserve rate cuts.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed early on Friday, lagging gains in tech-heavy benchmarks on the first trading day of 2026. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA), which tracks the 30-stock index, was down about 0.1%.
Why it matters now: the year is starting with U.S. stocks near record territory, but investors are still digesting a late-December pullback and a crowded January calendar. Wall Street’s main indexes opened higher on Friday, with the Dow up 0.09% at the opening bell.
The opening moves come as traders weigh how far the Federal Reserve will keep easing after rate cuts late last year, and whether upcoming economic reports confirm a cooling labor market without a sharper slowdown. Thin holiday trading is giving way to a week that market participants expect to deliver clearer signals on growth, inflation and policy.
Stocks ended 2025 with a drop in the final session, with the Dow closing down 303.77 points, or 0.63%, at 48,063.29. For the year, the Dow rose 12.97%, while the S&P 500 gained 16.39% and the Nasdaq climbed 20.36%, Reuters reported.
The Fed’s benchmark rate stands at 3.5% to 3.75% after the central bank lowered rates at each of its last three meetings of 2025, Reuters reported. Fed funds futures — derivatives that reflect expectations for the policy rate — implied little chance of a cut at the late-January meeting, and close to a 50% chance of a quarter-point reduction in March.
“The market is looking for direction,” said Matthew Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak. Reuters noted the S&P 500 is near record highs but around the same level it was in late October, a setup that can amplify reactions when key data hits. Reuters
Within the Dow, early support came from industrial and financial names, with Caterpillar up about 1% and Goldman Sachs up about 0.8%. UnitedHealth and JPMorgan traded lower, offsetting some of the advance, while Apple rose about 0.9%.
The broader market leaned more strongly toward growth, with the S&P 500 tracker SPY up about 0.4% and the Nasdaq-100 tracker QQQ up nearly 1%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.03% at the open, Reuters reported.
Tesla was in focus after reporting a bigger-than-expected fall in fourth-quarter deliveries, a data point investors often treat as a read-through for EV demand. Tesla said it delivered 418,227 vehicles in the quarter, below Visible Alpha expectations of 434,487, and Reuters reported its shares were marginally up in early trading.
Investors are also watching Washington, with Reuters flagging a U.S. Supreme Court decision on President Donald Trump’s tariffs and his choice of a new Fed chair among the near-term catalysts. Those events can matter for multinational industrials and exporters that make up a large share of the Dow’s market value.
Next on the calendar is the U.S. employment report due Jan. 9, with a Reuters poll expecting payrolls to rise by 55,000 in December after a 64,000 increase in November; the unemployment rate was 4.6% in November, a more than four-year high, Reuters reported. A monthly consumer price index report follows on Jan. 13, a key test of whether inflation is moving toward the Fed’s 2% target.
Earnings are close behind: Reuters said JPMorgan is due to report on Jan. 13, helping kick off fourth-quarter results season. With valuations elevated, investors are leaning on forecasts for strong profit growth, including Reuters-cited expectations for S&P 500 earnings growth of about 15.5% in 2026.
