.
NEW YORK:
Wall Street ended a light-volume post-Christmas session nearly unchanged on Friday, with few catalysts to fuel much conviction one way or the other. All three major US stock indexes closed nominally lower, snapping a five-session rally, but logged weekly gains.
“We had a very strong five-day rally, so in a way we’re just simply catching our breath today (Friday) after the holiday,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. “This is only day two of the official Santa Claus rally period, so we still have some time, and we think there’s going to be a little more upward bias going forward.”
Market participants watched for signs of a seasonal phenomenon called the “Santa Claus rally,” in which the S&P 500 advances through the last five trading days of the current year and the first two in the new one, a period that began on Wednesday and will run through January 5. Such a rally would bode well for stock performance in 2026.
Just three trading days remain in a turbulent year in which tariff jitters, simmering geopolitical tensions and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence-related momentum stocks took investors on a bumpy ride, but one in which the three major indexes are on track to register double-digit percentage gains.
