Wall Street is slipping at the beginning of the final day of trading for 2025, a banner year for markets that was driven by both optimism and uncertainty.
U.S. stocks are slipping in early trading Wednesday as Wall Street closes out a banner year for markets driven by both optimism and uncertainty.
The S&P 500 was down 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 111 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:07 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%. The stock indexes are coming off a three-day losing streak.
Trading is expected to be light ahead of the New Year’s Day holiday, when markets will be closed. With just one trading day left before the year ends, most big investors have closed out their positions for the year and trading volume has been very thin.
Even after their mini post-Christmas pullback, the indexes are on pace for strong gains for the year.
The S&P 500 is up more than 17% this year, it’s third straight double-digit annual gain. The Nasdaq is up 21.3% and the Dow has gained 13.7%.
Wall Street’s 2025 gains came as investors embraced the optimism surrounding artificial intelligence and its potential for boosting profits across almost all sectors. But the market had no shortage of turbulence along the way amid President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imported goods worldwide and uncertainty over the trajectory of interest rates.
