Overview
- The S&P 500 is on track to finish 2025 up more than 17%, with the Nasdaq rising over 20% and the Dow gaining more than 13% in a volatile year-end session.
- Chipmakers and companies tied to building and running data centers led the advance as hyperscalers pledged over $440 billion in AI-related capital spending for the next 12 months.
- Data-storage names Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate ranked among the S&P 500's top performers, while new index entrants Robinhood, Sandisk, AppLovin, and Carvana notched triple-digit gains.
- Performance was sharply split as Trade Desk logged the index’s worst decline at nearly 70%, underscoring narrow leadership and stock-by-stock dispersion.
- Federal Reserve minutes signaled it could be some time before another rate cut as traders largely expect no January move, and fresh data showed jobless claims fell to 199,000, while a spring tariff shock and a near-70% gold surge kept policy and macro risks in focus.