NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 4:59 PM ET — After-hours
- Wall Street ended lower as megacap technology shares pulled back in thin year-end trading.
- Tesla slid and Nvidia fell, while DigitalBridge jumped on a SoftBank buyout agreement.
- Investors now turn to Fed minutes and jobless claims in a holiday-shortened week.
Wall Street closed lower on Monday as heavyweight technology shares retreated in the final week of 2025, taking some air out of last week’s push to record highs.
The late-December wobble matters because many investors are managing year-end risk and rebalancing portfolios after a strong run. With fewer traders at their desks, small order flows can move prices more than usual.
The bigger question for markets is whether the momentum behind 2025’s rally can carry into the first sessions of 2026, or whether profit-taking and crowded positioning will keep volatility elevated.
The S&P 500 fell 0.35% to end at 6,905.74 — still up about 17% for the year — while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.50% to 23,474.35 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.51% to 48,461.93. Tesla sank 3.3% and Nvidia lost 1.2%; materials slipped as precious-metal miners fell after silver topped $80 an ounce before reversing, while energy shares gained nearly 1% as oil rose about 2%. Decliners outnumbered advancers 1.63-to-1 on the NYSE and volume was 13.08 billion shares versus a 20-day average of 16.2 billion, according to Reuters data. “This is (not) the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity,” said Hank Smith, director and head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust. 1
The retreat came with the S&P 500 hovering close to the 7,000 mark, a round-number level that many traders watch as a psychological hurdle.
Bank shares also softened, and investors trimmed exposure to some of the year’s biggest winners after the sector’s strong run.
DigitalBridge stood out on the upside, rising about 9.7% after SoftBank said it would acquire the digital infrastructure investor in a cash deal valued at about $4 billion. SoftBank’s $16-per-share offer represents a 15% premium to DigitalBridge’s prior close, and the companies said the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, with CEO Marc Ganzi continuing to lead the business as a separately managed platform. 2
For equity investors, the deal put a spotlight back on data centers and other “picks-and-shovels” infrastructure tied to the artificial-intelligence buildout, even as AI-linked megacaps cooled.
A bull market — a prolonged stretch of rising stock prices — that began in October 2022 remains intact, but Monday’s action showed how quickly leadership can fade when liquidity thins.
Before Tuesday’s session, the calendar turns to U.S. housing and Fed-related updates, with S&P Case-Shiller home prices and the Chicago Business Barometer due Tuesday alongside minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting. Initial jobless claims are due Wednesday, a day when U.S. bond markets are scheduled to close at 2 p.m. ET, while stock markets keep normal hours on New Year’s Eve before the New Year’s Day holiday. 3
Technicians are also watching whether the S&P 500 can regain traction toward 7,000; clearing that level can draw incremental buying, while failure often invites more year-end trimming.
Some investors continue to watch for a “Santa Claus rally,” a seasonal pattern often defined as gains in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January. It is not a rule — but it is closely tracked as a sentiment barometer heading into the new year.
