Opening Comment — Wednesday, December 31, 2025
DJIA: 48,367.06, down 94.87
S&P 500: 6,896.24, down 9.50
NASDAQ: 23,419.08, down 55.27
Stocks lower before unemployment claims
Stock futures are lower Wednesday morning ahead of the last trading day of the year as investors look forward to today’s unemployment claims data. As of 7:18 AM ET, the Dow is decreasing 0.1%, while the S&P 500 is down 0.2%. The Nasdaq 100 is also falling 0.2% relative to fair value on the GLOBEX.
U.S. equities were lower on Tuesday as the minutes for the Federal Open Market Committee’s December meeting showed a lack of consensus among policymakers regarding which portion of their dual mandate to focus on. Meanwhile, measures of home prices showed a greater-than-expected rise in October. The Dow was down 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.2%. The S&P 500 decreased 0.1% with six of 11 sectors finishing in negative territory. The Energy sector was the top performer, rising 0.8%, while the Consumer Discretionary sector was the bottom performer, falling 0.3%.
On the data front, initial jobless claims for the week ending December 27 are expected to come in at 218,000, higher than the prior week’s 214,000, while continuing claims are expected to decrease slightly to 1.90 million for the week ending December 20 from the prior week’s 1.92 million. The Department of Energy’s measure of crude oil inventories is expected to have increased by 500,000 barrels for the week ending December 26 versus the prior week’s increase 405,000 barrels.
Across the pond, European stocks are lower in thin, mid-day, end of year trading.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mixed following South Korea’s Consumer Price Index rising 0.3% month-over-month and 2.3% year-over-year in December. China’s December manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) increased to 50.1, as the country’s non-manufacturing PMI increased to 50.2. Meanwhile, the country’s private manufacturing PMI rose slightly to 50.1 in December.
In FOREX trading, the U.S. dollar is little changed ahead of today’s unemployment claims data.
Over in the commodity pits, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is 0.6% higher at $58.32/barrel.
In the metals complex, gold is 0.6% lower at $4,312.47/ounce.