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📈 TL;DR – Last Week in 60 Seconds
Stocks ended the holiday-shortened week higher, with the S&P 500 pushing fresh record territory. Confidence got a lift from a stronger GDP* update, and investors kept betting the Fed will keep cutting rates in 2026. Bond yields (the market’s key interest rates) eased, which helped growth stocks keep their footing.
Gold ripped higher, and silver’s move turned into the week’s loudest chart. Single-stock headlines still mattered: Target popped on activist chatter, and Nvidia got a boost from an AI partnership headline. Next up: Fed meeting minutes and fresh labor data.
Quick Levels → Last week’s change
S&P 500: 6,929.95 | ↑1.40% Nasdaq 100: 25,644.39 | ↑1.18% Dow: 48,710.98 | ↑1.20% Russell 2000: 2,534.35 | ↓0.19% | Gold/oz: $4,533 | ↑4.48% Silver/oz: $79.31 | ↑18.08% Bitcoin (BTC): $87,903 | ↓0.85% DXY (US Dollar Index): 98.05 | ↓0.67% |
🚀 Top Movers Last Week
Source: Decoder
Abivax Société Anonyme (ABVX) ↑23.81% — Index inclusion and takeover chatter around Eli Lilly kept buyers chasing this ulcerative colitis-focused biotech.
Venture Global (VG) ↑9.45% — Long-term LNG contract headlines helped a beaten-down exporter bounce hard in holiday trade, though it pulled back on Fri.
Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) ↑7.91% — Copper hit record highs on tariff fears and tight supply, lifting miners.
Nvidia (NVDA) ↑5.27% — A strategic licensing deal with Groq boosted confidence in Nvidia’s artificial intelligence (AI) inference (the answering step) push.
Oklo (OKLO) ↓7.58% — Dropped after a $1.5B at-the-market share-sale plan sparked fresh dilution fears.
🗺 Market Map
Year-end is “portfolio math” season. Big funds do portfolio rebalancing*—selling what ran hot, topping up what lagged. Add tax-loss harvesting* and you get odd, temporary moves that can flip in early January.
Precious metals keep ripping. Silver and Gold held near record ground. A softer dollar and growing bets on Fed cuts in 2026 helped, alongside geopolitical hedging in thin holiday trading. Copper’s rally was the industrial sidekick. Prices pushed above $12k/ton as traders pre-bought metal ahead of possible U.S. tariffs and supply hiccups.
Rates steer the playbook. The 10-year Treasury sits near ~4.11% for December; rate-sensitive groups (REITs/utilities) respond quickly when yields drift. Any surprise in labor data could nudge yields and sector leadership.
Energy is a swing factor. Oil rebounded toward the high-$50s after a late-week drop; inventories and geopolitics can tug inflation expectations and energy equities into year-end. Keep an eye on WTI* headlines.
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🛒 Buy Zone
Long-term investors: Year-end selling can mark down solid, boring areas (health care, dividends, small caps) for non-fundamental reasons. If you’ve drifted overweight tech after a strong year, consider a slow, rules-based rebalance back toward your target mix—no hero trades, just maintenance.
Short-term traders: Watch for a “January pop” after tax-loss selling fades. Names that broke support in December can snap back on light volume. Guardrail: size small and use December lows as the line in the sand. If State JOLTS surprises, expect the bounce to stall.
💡 Signal Spotlight
Silver tags $84/oz: what powered the spike
Silver (XAGUSD*) briefly hit $84/oz Sunday as a tight supply backdrop met a friendlier macro setup (lower real yields* and a softer DXY). China policy mattered on the margin: an export-licensing shift (starting Jan 1, 2026) raised supply concerns, while ongoing renewables/grid support underpins industrial demand.
With liquidity thin, futures* positioning likely amplified the swing — and the snapback. Expect big moves; this is a high-volatility metal right now.
👀 What to Watch
Mon, Dec 29 — Pending Home Sales: a forward-looking pulse on housing demand.
Mon, Dec 29 — Dallas Fed survey: fresh read on factory demand/pricing.
Tue, Dec 30 — Chicago PMI: Regional manufacturing pulse ahead of national PMIs; good for gauging manufacturing demand.
Tue, Dec 30 — State JOLTS* (Oct. 2025): state-by-state openings/hires/quits; watch regional tightness and wage pressure signals.
Tue, Dec 30 — S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller: Home-price gauge; last-Tuesday cadence with two-month lag guides affordability talk.
Tue, Dec 30 — FOMC Meeting Minutes (Dec. 2025): details behind the Fed’s last rate decision; clues on how soon the Fed might pivot in 2026.
Thu, Jan 1— U.S. markets closed (New Year’s Day)
Fri, Jan 2 — ISM Manufacturing PMI: First big 2026 growth pulse; moves stocks and Treasury yields.
📚 Decoder
Futures: Contracts to buy/sell later; used for hedging and speculation.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product): Total output of the economy; growth signal for markets.
Portfolio rebalancing: Resetting investments back to target mix after markets move.
Real yields: Bond yield minus inflation; key driver for gold and silver.
State JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover): State job openings, hires, and quits; labor-market tightness view.
Tax-loss harvesting: Selling losers to reduce taxable gains; sometimes planning rebuy later.
WTI (West Texas Intermediate): U.S. crude oil benchmark tied to domestic supply-demand.
XAGUSD (Silver): Spot silver priced in U.S. dollars (silver-to-dollar exchange rate).
🕔 That’s your 5-minute guide to start the week. There’s more info out there…dive in! News is free; risk isn’t.
We’ll be back to check-in on Thursday at 7 AM ET.
Educational only—not investment advice.
Thanks for reading 5 Minute Markets!
