NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 19:50 ET
Alphabet closed out 2025 up about 66%, its best year since 2009, as investors warmed to Google’s push into artificial intelligence. Shares rebounded from an April low of $144.70, and Wall Street has pointed to new search features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, built on its latest Gemini 3 model, as key to keeping users inside Google even as rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Perplexity gain traction. 1
The year-end run matters because big tech has set the tone for equity performance, and investors are pressing companies to show that heavy AI spending can translate into durable revenue. With positioning resets under way, the market’s focus has shifted from what AI can do to what it can earn.
U.S. stocks finished 2025 with double-digit gains despite a dip in the final session, as demand for AI-linked names pushed major indexes toward record highs during the year. “We expect this broadening of performance to deepen in 2026, both within the U.S. and across international markets,” said Jitania Kandhari, deputy chief investment officer of the solutions and multi-asset group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. 2
On the analyst side, Citizens JMP raised its price target on Alphabet to $385 from $340 and kept a “market outperform” rating, MarketBeat reported. A price target is an analyst’s estimate of where a stock could trade over time, and the new target implies about 23% upside from recent levels. 3
Alphabet’s surge has also stood out within the “Magnificent Seven,” a label for the biggest U.S. tech stocks that dominate major indexes and have become a proxy for investor appetite for growth. Peers such as Apple and Microsoft have also been swept up in the AI trade, but Alphabet’s rebound has been one of the clearest late-2025 stories.
The next question for Alphabet is execution: whether AI features strengthen search engagement and support advertising prices without driving costs too far ahead of revenue. Investors have also kept a close eye on regulatory risk, which has been a recurring overhang for the company.
Away from megacaps, investor attention has swung toward smaller, more volatile names as the year closed. Novavax was among the most watched tickers on Zacks.com’s platform, according to a Yahoo Finance write-up of the research firm’s “trending stock” list. 4
Zacks said Novavax shares returned about 1.9% over the past month, and the firm noted expectations for a quarterly loss of about 66 cents a share. The numbers reflect consensus estimates, which compile forecasts from analysts who cover the company. 5
Novavax’s stock has still struggled in recent sessions: shares fell 1.47% on Tuesday to $6.72 and trailed moves in large pharma peers such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Merck, MarketWatch reported. The report said the stock was about 42% below its 52-week high and that trading volume ran below its 50-day average. 6
Novavax is best known as a vaccine developer, and the stock has often traded on shifts in revenue expectations and regulatory headlines. That dynamic can draw retail interest, but it can also amplify moves when liquidity is thin.
For both Alphabet and smaller biotech names, the next catalyst will be fresh guidance as 2026 begins, with investors watching who can deliver growth without letting costs outrun it. In the meantime, the year-end scoreboard shows AI-linked narratives still setting the market’s direction.
