S&P 500 and Dow hit record highs as Santa rally reaches Wall Street – as it happened | Business

S&P 500 hits report excessive as Santa rally beginsThe fabled Santa rally has reached the New York inventory trade!The S&P 500 index of US firm shares has hit a report excessive in the present day, on a shortened Christmas Eve buying and selling session. It touched a brand new intraday report excessive of 6,921.42 factors, surpassing its earlier peak in October.The rally comes as traders continued to guess on extra rate of interest cuts from the Federal Reserve subsequent 12 months.There’s additionally lingering aid that yesterday’s GDP report confirmed the US economic system grew relatively sooner than anticipated within the July-September quarter.Nike (+4.6%) are the highest riser on the S&P 500, reversing some losses final week after it reported weak gross sales in China and an influence from Donald Trump’s tariffs.It’s adopted by chipmaker Micron which cheered Wall Avenue final week with sturdy monetary outcomes.ShareKey eventsShow key occasions onlyPlease activate JavaScript to make use of this featureClosing put up (2): Wall Avenue closes at report highAnd lastly… two of the US inventory market’s main indices have ended Christmas Eve at new closing highs.The Dow Industrials and S&P 500 registered closing report highs in a broad rally throughout a holiday-shortened session, Reuters experiences, in a constructive begin to the Santa Rally interval.The S&P 500 gained 0.32%, whereas the Dow completed up 0.6%.BREAKING: THE S&P 500 JUST HIT ANOTHER RECORD HIGH! 📈The index has now gained over $1.6 TRILLION in market cap over the previous 5 days 😳 pic.twitter.com/uxxBzslyNK— Peter Tuchman (@EinsteinoWallSt) December 24, 2025This is the fifth straight session of positive aspects, helped by a rebound in AI-related names and optimism of cuts to US rates of interest subsequent 12 months.Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York, says:
“Yields are behaving, quantity is mild, however the identical points stay in place – AI is powerful, there’s speak of some positives right here, new OpenAI and Meta fashions, that may get the chatter up.
“The Fed is unlikely to decrease charges once more, at the very least for some time. Who is aware of what occurs when Could comes and we get a brand new head of the Fed? However we’ve a really low chance of a January lower.”
Within the meantime, it’s time to wrap this weblog up (once more). Merry Christmas!ShareToday’s Wall Avenue positive aspects will reinforce the thought of a Santa rally – the idea that inventory markets have a tendency to maneuver larger this time of 12 months.Bloomberg explains:
Traders hoping for a “Santa Claus Rally” — which usually encompasses the final 5 buying and selling classes of the 12 months and the primary two of the brand new one — noticed the S&P 500 rising at the beginning of that interval. Quantity was virtually 50% under the typical of the previous month. Bond yields and the greenback fell.
ShareUpdated at 13.16 ESTToday’s rally comes as many traders, analysts and economists have clocked off for Christmas.However earlier than they swapped their monetary terminals for Die Arduous, Love Truly and The Muppet Christmas Carol, many predicted that inventory markets would hold rising in 2026.UBS predict that “supportive financial situations ought to underpin world equities, that are anticipated to rise by round 15% by the tip of 2026,” with positive aspects probably within the US, China, Japan, and Europe.Double-digit positive aspects are anticipated on Wall Avenue. Underneath UBS’s base case situation, the US S&P 500 index ends 2026 at 7,700 factors, which might be a achieve of round 11%.Deutsche Financial institution, who say 2026 guarantees to be something however boring, have a year-end S&P 500 goal of 8,000 factors. Oppenheimer Asset Administration are much more bullish; they set a year-end 2026 goal of 8100 factors for the S&P 500 index.ShareThe storied Dow Jones industrial common is approaching its personal report excessive in the present day.The DJIA is up 320 factors, or 0.66%, at 48,763 factors, close to the intraday report excessive reached earlier this month.Nike, once more, is the highest riser, with prescription drugs agency Merck (+1.5%) and funding financial institution JP Morgan (1%) shut behind.ShareToday’s drop in US preliminary jobless claims (see earlier put up) might have reassured merchants that the US economic system is in respectable well being.Nancy Vanden Houten, lead economist at Oxford Economics, says:
“Regardless of ongoing seasonal volatility, preliminary jobless claims stay in ranges according to comparatively regular labor market situations and don’t change our outlook for the labor market or Fed coverage.”
ShareS&P 500 hits report excessive as Santa rally beginsThe fabled Santa rally has reached the New York inventory trade!The S&P 500 index of US firm shares has hit a report excessive in the present day, on a shortened Christmas Eve buying and selling session. It touched a brand new intraday report excessive of 6,921.42 factors, surpassing its earlier peak in October.The rally comes as traders continued to guess on extra rate of interest cuts from the Federal Reserve subsequent 12 months.There’s additionally lingering aid that yesterday’s GDP report confirmed the US economic system grew relatively sooner than anticipated within the July-September quarter.Nike (+4.6%) are the highest riser on the S&P 500, reversing some losses final week after it reported weak gross sales in China and an influence from Donald Trump’s tariffs.It’s adopted by chipmaker Micron which cheered Wall Avenue final week with sturdy monetary outcomes.ShareClosing postTime to wrap up, for festive enjoyable!We’ll be again on Monday twenty ninth December – maybe Santa might need reached the inventory markets by then too.Wishing you a really merry Christmas. GWShareWH Smith to claw again £1.5m bonuses from execsSarah ButlerWH Smith will take again simply over £1.5m in money and shares bonuses paid out to its former chief govt and finance director and has slashed future bonus funds after an accounting scandal at its north American division.The corporate stated it had re-calculated awards for its 2024 and 2023 annual bonus funds and a 2021 long run bonus scheme to Carl Cowling, its chief govt who left final month within the mild of the scandal, and Robert Moorhead, the previous finance director who left in 2024.This complete overpayment to Carl Cowling was £516,000 in money and 60,182 deferred bonus and long run bonus shares price £374,933 at in the present day’s share value. The overpayment to Robert Moorhead was £372,000 in money and 43,739 in shares price £272,493, the corporate stated, in an annual report launched shortly after inventory market buying and selling closed for Christmas.The books, stationery, tech and toys retailer has additionally ditched the fee of an annual and long-term bonus to Carl Cowling, in order that his annual pay for the 12 months to August 2025 slumped to £724,000 from £2.7m a 12 months earlier than.Nevertheless, the report stated Cowling would stay an worker till 28 February after which would obtain ‘month-to-month wage funds’ till the tip of his 12-month discover interval though these is likely to be ‘topic to mitigation.”That may imply Cowling will obtain as much as his annual pay of £711,000, earlier than advantages and pension, in month-to-month funds over the approaching 12 months and he’s additionally holding on to additional long run bonus shares which can vest in future years relying on WH Smith’s efficiency.As well as the corporate stated Robert Moorhead was now not counted as a ‘good leaver’ and so his deferred bonus share funds, price about £1.2m have been now “anticipated to be cancelled in full”.ShareUpdated at 10.37 ESTCalm buying and selling on Wall StreetThe ground on the New York Inventory Change earlier this month. {Photograph}: Brendan McDermid/ReutersOver in New York, Wall Avenue buying and selling has begun relatively gently.The Dow Jones Industrial Common, of 30 giant US firms, has gained 20 factors or 0.04% in early buying and selling to 48,462 factors.The broader S&P 500 index could be very marginally larger….ShareUpdated at 09.53 ESTBack within the UK, the retailers have reportedly been a bit of busier than final Christmas Eve.MRI Software program knowledge reveals that footfall throughout retailers as much as 1pm in the present day was 2.4% larger than a 12 months in the past.That features a 6.6% rise at retail parks, and a 1.1% improve on the excessive streets.ShareUpdated at 09.15 ESTThe variety of People submitting new purposes for jobless advantages unexpectedly fell final week, new knowledge reveals.Preliminary claims for state unemployment advantages dropped 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 214,000 for the week ending on 20 December, the Labor Division says.That’s under the 224,000 anticipated by economists, and suggests the US employment market stays strong, because the preliminary claims complete is seen as a proxy for firm layoffs.ShareUpdated at 08.56 ESTSolGold agrees to £867m takeover by prime investor Jiangxi CopperShortly after the London inventory market closed, a takeover deal for gold and copper miner SolGold was introduced.SolGold has agreed to be taken over by its prime shareholder, Jiangxi Copper, in a deal valuing it at £867mThe London-listed miner stated earlier this month it was inclined to suggest the supply, which was Jiangxi’s third proposal to accumulate the corporate amid a worldwide race for copper belongings.SolGold says the takeover ought to assist it develop its Cascabel challenge – a South American copper and gold mine.Dan Vujcic, CEO of SolGold, says:
“SolGold believes we’ve made substantial progress within the final 12 months in creating the Cascabel Venture and attaining key milestones, which has been mirrored in SolGold’s sturdy share value efficiency.
Following in depth shareholder session following the receipt of the proposals from JCC, the Board believes all shareholders ought to have the chance to think about the Acquisition.
Having fastidiously thought-about the phrases of the Acquisition, the SolGold Board believes it’s in one of the best pursuits of shareholders and the corporate, and the SolGold Board have unanimously really useful the transaction to shareholders.”
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