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Financial Markets 12/29 15:29
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks slipped in quiet trading on Wall Street Monday to
kick off another holiday-shortened week.
The losses have little impact on the broader annual gains for major indexes
as they close out their final days of the year. There are two trading days left
before the year ends. Markets in the U.S. will be closed Thursday for New
Year's Day.
The S&P 500 fell 24.20 points, or 0.3%, to 6,905.74. The benchmark index is
still up more than 17% for the year and it remains on track for its eighth
monthly gain in a row.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 249.04 points, or 0.5%, to 48,461.93.
The Nasdaq composite fell 118.75 points, or 0.5%, to 23,474.35.
Big technology stocks with outsized valuations were among the heaviest
weights on the market. Nvidia fell 1.2% and Broadcom fell 0.8%. Investor
optimism about the future of artificial intelligence has been driving the
sector mostly higher all year and pushing the broader market to a series of
records.
Technology stocks have been more unsteady as the year heads to a close,
though. They mostly slipped in November and have only notched modest gains
through December. Nvidia and several other companies focusing on AI or
benefiting heavily from the developing technology have become some of the most
valuable in the world. Investors have seemingly become more skeptical about
whether the eventual payoff will make the hefty investments worthwhile.
Energy stocks gained ground along with rising oil prices. U.S. benchmark
crude jumped 2.4% to settle at $58.08 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the
international standard, rose 2.1% to settle at $61.94 a barrel. Exxon Mobil
rose 1.2%.
Gold and silver prices pulled back from their recent sharp gains after the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the world's largest trading floors for
commodities, asked traders to put up more cash to make bets on precious metals.
The price of gold fell 4.6%, though prices for the precious metal are still
up about 64% for the year. Silver prices slumped 8.7%, but they have still more
than doubled overall in 2025.
Treasury yields fell in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury
fell to 4.11% from 4.13% late Friday.
Treasury yields have fallen significantly from the start of the year. That's
partly due to initial anticipation for cuts and eventual cuts to interest rates
in 2025 from the Federal Reserve. The central bank cut its benchmark interest
rate three times later in the year. At the same time, it started facing a more
complicated economic situation, where inflation remained stubbornly high while
the job market started slowing.
The central bank cut rates with the aim of offsetting the impact on the
economy from a slowdown in jobs growth. That risks heating up inflation that is
already stubbornly above the central bank's target rate of 2%. Interest rate
cuts could boost the economy by making loans less expensive, but that benefit
could be nullified by rising inflation stunting economic growth.
Markets in Europe and Asia were mixed. Shares in Taiwan were higher even
after China's military said it was conducting drills around the self-governed
island that Beijing claims as its territory. Taiwan's benchmark Taiex gained
0.9%, but the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gave up early gains, falling 0.7%.
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Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this story.
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