Weekly Stock Market Update | Dow, S&P 500, NASDAQ News – December 21, 2025

The US stocks ended last week on a positive note as optimism grew due to signs of cooling inflation and diminishing AI concerns. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) advanced 0.8%, Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) experienced a 1.3% gain, and the Dow Jones Industrial (^DJI) went up by 0.3%.

By the end of the week, S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded weekly wins, rising 0.1% and 0.4%, respectively. Despite this, Dow fell to 0.6%. The resilience in the tech sector was significant with Oracle (ORCL) stock jumping following the announcement of deals signed by China’s ByteDance to create a US TikTok joint venture. Nvidia (NVDA) too saw a surge in its share prices following a Reuters report stating that the US is considering sales prospects for its H200 chips in China.

Conversely, the pharmaceutical sector witnessed some major changes. Nine pharmaceutical companies struck a deal with the Trump administration to reduce drug prices for some Americans in exchange for a three-year tariff exemption on their products. This comes as investors embraced this week’s delays in November reports on jobs and consumer inflation, which revived hope of continued easing by the Federal Reserve.

Despite a weakening job market, the optimism was further strengthened as this week’s inflation figures painted a rosier picture. The traders still anticipate two rate cuts next year, with an increasing number of bets placed in favor of more cuts recently. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) ended the week at 4.15% following the Bank of Japan’s hike in interest rates, reaching its highest level since 1995.

The market’s attention is now shifted towards the “Santa Claus rally” as Wall Street heads toward the year-end. The rally generally occurs during the last week of December and traditionally results in an S&P 500 gain of 1.3% during the seven-days timeframe since 1950. However, despite the late-week rebound, Wall Street still awaits the Santa Claus rally as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are down for the month. The only index on pace for an eight-month advance is the Dow Jones Industrial Average which is up by 0.9% in December.

This week, the stock market saw mixed results influenced by artificial intelligence (AI) trade and inflation data.

On Wednesday, U.S. stocks fell significantly. The Nasdaq Composite lost around 1.8%, the S&P 500 slipped over 1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 0.5%. The fall was attributed to Oracle’s ($10 billion data center project losing the backing of private lender Blue Owl Capital, leading to worries over AI funding. As a result, Oracle shares plummeted nearly 6%, while Nvidia lost almost 4%, Broadcom sank over 4%, and Google declined over 3%.

On Thursday, US stocks rebounded, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining 1.4%, pushed up by a strong earnings report from Micron, whose shares rose 10%. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also rose around 0.8% and 0.2% respectively. This came after a cooler-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) report eased inflation worries.

On Friday, US stocks rose again. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.31%, closing at 23,307.62. The S&P 500 climbed 0.88% to end at 6,834.50, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced by 183.04 points, or 0.38%, settling at 48,134.89. Oracle shares saw a comeback with a 6.6% increase, while Nvidia rose by 4%, and Micron Technology shares continued their upward trend, rising around 7%. However, Nike saw a significant decline, with shares sliding 10.5% due to declining revenue in its Greater China market and the effects of tariff increases.

Overall, the broad-based index eked out a 0.1% gain, while the Nasdaq advanced 0.5%. The Dow, however, slipped 0.7%.