Wall Street indexes closed lower on Wednesday, echoing their world counterparts amid light trading on the last day of 2025, while investors took some profits in precious metals as they crossed the finish line of a roller-coaster twelve months.
The three major US stock indexes ended well in negative territory, content to drift along just below record highs and bask in robust, double-digit annual gains.
While all three indexes registered quarterly gains, and the Dow logged a monthly advance, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted nominal monthly declines.
"It was a rather tiring year looking back on it, and Liberation Day seems like it was eons ago," said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon in Charlotte, North Carolina, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's April 2 sweeping tariff policy announcement. "It's frankly hard to find an asset class that did poorly outside of the U.S. dollar."
Wednesday's modest moves cap a whipsaw year marked by geopolitical turbulence, on-again, off-again tariff threats, dollar weakness, and ongoing mania surrounding the artificial intelligence boom.
"We think the next two years are going to be about the diffusion of AI capabilities throughout the economy," Ladner added. "Understanding that shift from ‘we've got to build this technology’ to ‘we've got to use this technology’ is going to be one of the most important things we can figure out from an investing and an economic analysis standpoint."
Gold and silver continued to consolidate as investors took advantage of the precious metals' remarkable price jumps this year, with gold hitting a 46-year peak and silver seeing a record annual surge.
Looking to the coming year, investors will seek clues into the U.S. Federal Reserve's path forward on interest rates as the flow of economic data returns to normal in the aftermath of the longest-ever federal government shutdown, with an imminent change of leadership as Jerome Powell nears the end of his stint as Fed Chair.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 303.77 points, or 0.63%, to 48,063.29, the S&P 500 fell 50.74 points, or 0.74%, to 6,845.50 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 177.09 points, or 0.76%, to 23,241.99.
European shares inched lower but remained just south of all-time highs, capping their biggest annual percentage gains in four years, driven by lower interest rates, Germany's fiscal support and a rotation away from high-priced U.S. tech-related shares.
"When we look back on 2025, international stock markets dominated U.S. equity performance," Ladner said. "(That) is not something we've seen very often and is rather notable."
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 5.37 points, or 0.53%, to 1,014.79.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.1%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 1.62 points, or 0.07%.
Emerging market stocks rose 2.37 points, or 0.17%, to 1,404.90. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.05%, to 722.41, while Japan's Nikkei fell 187.44 points, or 0.37%, to 50,339.48.
TREASURY YIELDS RISE, DOLLAR SUFFERS BIGGEST ANNUAL DROP SINCE 2017
U.S. Treasury yields moved higher following a labor market report showing an unexpected dip in applications for unemployment benefits.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 3.5 basis points to 4.163%, from 4.128% late on Tuesday.
The 30-year bond yield rose 2.7 basis points to 4.8405% from 4.813% late on Tuesday.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 2.1 basis points to 3.475%, from 3.454% late on Tuesday.
The dollar inched higher but remained on course for a year-on-year decline as the greenback was weighed down by interest rate cuts, fiscal worries and Trump's erratic tariff policies.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.01% to 98.25, with the euro up 0.02% at $1.1748.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.17% to 156.65.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.70% to $87,581.56. Ethereum rose 0.22% to $2,972.29.
Crude oil prices slid as oversupply concerns offset geopolitical risks, registering their biggest annual drop since 2020.
U.S. crude fell 0.91% to settle at $57.42 per barrel, while Brent settled at $60.85 per barrel, down 0.78% on the day.
Spot gold fell 0.78% to $4,312.39 an ounce, while spot silver dropped 7.1% to $71.04 per ounce.
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