(Dec 31): Equities were a touch weaker on the final trading day of 2025, trimming some of the gains that have powered global stocks to a third annual advance.
Shares in Australia edged lower on Wednesday and equity-index futures for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 indices both fell 0.2%. That was after the underlying gauges retreated in New York. Trading is relatively light as a number of markets are already shut for the year, including Japan and South Korea. Gold crept higher, while silver fell.
The MSCI All Country World Index — one of the broadest measures of the equity market — has still risen 21% this year supported by US Federal Reserve (Fed) interest rate cuts and enthusiasm over artificial intelligence (AI). Silver outperformed most assets, surging almost 160%. Asian equities are primed for the best year since 2017.
Precious metals have had a bumper year, with gold and silver both set for their best annual jump since 1979. Bitcoin, however, was poised for its second annual decline in four years. A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar slumped 8.1% this year, the biggest drop since 2017.
Equities climbed to all-time highs in 2025 as optimism over economic growth, corporate earnings and a looser monetary policy helped markets rebound from an April slump that was triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Still, heading into 2026, investors face elevated valuations and growing divisions among policymakers over the scope for further easing, as evidenced by the minutes of the Fed’s December meeting published on Tuesday.
See also: Asian stocks climb with tech leading; silver advances
“The overriding theme is that global stock indices have lost momentum into year end,” Kathleen Brooks, a research director at XTB, wrote in a note. “There are plenty of reasons for this, including decent returns for 2025, and investors waiting to make big trading decisions until after the Christmas break.”
Investors bet big on shifting politics, bloated balance sheets and fragile narratives, fuelling outsized stock rallies, crowded yield trades, and crypto strategies built on leverage, hope, and not much else.
Trump’s White House return quickly sank — and then revived — financial markets across the world, lit a fire under European defence stocks, and emboldened speculators fanning mania after mania. Some positions paid off spectacularly. Others misfired when momentum reversed, financing dried up or leverage cut the wrong way.
See also: South Korea crushes global benchmarks with best stock rally since 1999
In other corners of the market, oil headed for its deepest annual loss since the pandemic in 2020, with prices undermined by concerns about a punishing surplus that’s set to dominate market sentiment and trading into the new year.
In Asia, currency moves have gained a lot of attention recently, with the onshore yuan gaining past the widely watched seven-per-dollar level on Tuesday for the first time since 2023.
Investors have at least one reason to be optimistic heading into the new year. MSCI’s gauge for global stocks has climbed an average 1.4% in January over the last 10 years and advanced in six of those instances, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
“Wall Street is rounding out the year in a subdued fashion, capping a good year for stocks, albeit one that included a nervous moment or two,” Kyle Rodda, a senior analyst at Capital.com, wrote in a note. “The markets are pricing in a pretty much close to perfect set of circumstances going into next year.”
Corporate highlights:
- Warner Bros Discovery Inc plans to once again reject a takeover bid from Paramount Sky dance Corp after the rival media company amended the terms of its offer, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking.
- Tesla Inc took the unusual step of publishing a series of sales estimates indicating the outlook for its vehicle deliveries may be lower than many investors were expecting.
- Air China Ltd will buy 60 Airbus SE aircraft in a long-anticipated transaction worth US$9.53 billion ($12.24 billion).
Some of the main moves in markets:
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Stocks
- S&P 500 futures were down 0.2% as of 10.42am Tokyo time on Wednesday
- Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.2%
- The Shanghai Composite was little changed
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
- The euro was little changed at US$1.1746
- The Japanese yen was unchanged at 156.41 per dollar
- The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.9881 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin rose 0.4% to US$88,579.85
- Ether rose 0.4% to US$2,978.85
Bonds
- Australia’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.74%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude was little changed
- Spot gold rose 0.6% to US$4,366.29 an ounce
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
