U.S. stocks appeared headed for a mostly muted open until a shortened final trading session before the Christmas holiday. Futures linked to the S&P 500 (ES=F) rose 0.1%, while those on the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NQ=F) rose 0.2%. Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) futures approached the flat line.
Wall Street is looking to enter its Christmas holiday rejuvenated, after technology stocks, including artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia (NVDA), led the charge higher on Monday. The markets close today at 1 pm Eastern Time and will be closed tomorrow for Christmas Day.
Sizable gains on Friday and Monday have put the indices back on track toward their all-time highs, from which they took a Fed-driven nosedive last week.
Wall Street is reassessing the path of interest rates next year as it grapples with the reality that the Federal Reserve largely achieved a so-called soft landing but could not fully fix the U.S. economy’s inflation problem. According to the CME FedWatch tool, most bets are focused on two upcoming suspensions at the Federal Reserve meetings in January and March, followed by a change in May.
Meanwhile, many eyes remain on Nvidia, which posted a gain of more than 3.5% on Monday. As Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley writes, 2024 was Nvidia’s year, with the stock up around 180%. But 2025 could present many challenges.
LIVE 1 update