NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 13:54 ET — Regular session
- The Dow was down about 0.5% in afternoon trade as Nvidia and other big-priced components weighed.
- Investors are navigating the final, holiday-shortened week of the year with Fed minutes and jobless claims ahead.
- Oil rose while gold and silver slid sharply, adding to choppy sector moves.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell on Monday as year-end trading turned cautious and several high-priced blue chips slid.
The pullback matters now because U.S. stocks are heading into the last stretch of 2025 near record levels, when thin holiday volumes can exaggerate moves.
Some investors are watching for a “Santa Claus rally,” a seasonal pattern in which the S&P 500 often rises in the last five trading days of the year and the first two of January, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. Reuters
At 1:54 p.m. ET, the Dow was down 222.59 points, or 0.46%, at 48,488.38. The S&P 500 fell 0.41% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.63%.
The Dow opened at 48,636.63 and has ranged between 48,390.91 and 48,704.83 so far in the session, data showed.
Nvidia slid 1.57% and Home Depot, Goldman Sachs, American Express and JPMorgan were also among the index’s biggest laggards.
Chevron gained 0.67%, while Walt Disney, Coca-Cola, Walmart and Boeing also advanced.
Moves in higher-priced Dow components can carry extra weight because the index is price-weighted, meaning the share price — not market value — drives influence on the benchmark.
In the broader macro backdrop, U.S. crude futures rose about 2% to $57.91 a barrel. The 10-year Treasury yield eased to around 4.117%.
Gold futures fell 4.5% and silver futures dropped 8.66%, after last week’s precious-metals surge cooled. Reuters reported silver slid after topping $80 an ounce for the first time, while gold pulled back after consecutive record highs.
“This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, told Reuters. Reuters
Even with Monday’s dip, the Dow and the S&P 500 were on pace for an eighth straight monthly gain, and the S&P 500 is up about 17% so far this year, Reuters reported. U.S. markets are closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day, leaving three sessions to wrap up 2025.
Outside the Dow, DigitalBridge rose after SoftBank agreed to buy the digital-infrastructure investor in a deal valued at $4 billion, Reuters reported. Traders also have minutes from the Fed’s previous meeting and weekly jobless claims ahead in an otherwise data-light week.
