Category: 3. Business

U.S. stocks held near all-time highs on Friday, while the run-up in precious metals broke new ground.

Front-month silver futures surged 7.7% to around $76.49 a troy ounce, extending a record run that has more than doubled prices this year while sweeping up Wall Street pros and amateur investors alike. Gold futures also hit records, rising around 1.1% to $4,529.10 a troy ounce.

One factor boosting precious metals, which are often viewed as a haven for nervous investors: escalating geopolitical tensions. The U.S. staged a Christmas Day strike on Islamic State in Nigeria, and has blockaded sanctioned oil tankers entering and exiting Venezuelan waters. U.S. crude futures rose 0.4% this week, snapping a two-week streak of declines.

U.S. stock indexes swung between small gains and losses in thin trading before finishing slightly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite all fell less than 0.1%.

Major U.S. indexes notched a fifth straight session of gains on Christmas Eve, with both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials closing at records. Stocks often rise in the period spanning the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the next, in what is sometimes termed a Santa Claus Rally.

Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, said the market’s performance at year-end continues to be driven by the tech giants that have dominated 2025, although sectors such as small-caps and international stocks have finally begun to catch up since early November.

“The market is starting to feel like it needs to broaden out,” he said. “There’s almost this undeniable pressure for the bull market to broaden out if it’s going to continue.”

On Friday, the metals rally lifted shares of miners including Southern Copper and Freeport-McMoRan, which rose 0.9% and 2.2% respectively. Materials shares in the S&P 500 gained 0.6%.

Nvidia stock climbed 1% after the chip maker late Wednesday unveiled a licensing deal with Groq, a semiconductor startup.

Shares of Coupang, South Korea’s e-commerce rival to Amazon, jumped 6.4% after skidding in recent weeks. The customer information leaked in a massive cybersecurity breach has been deleted by the suspect, according to media reports.

Numerous stock markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific remained closed on Friday, including in the U.K. and Hong Kong. The Japanese yen slipped against the dollar after data showed Tokyo consumer prices rose more slowly than expected in December, but held above the Bank of Japan’s target. Japan’s cabinet approved a record-high initial budget for the next fiscal year.

Silver prices jumped 9.6% to top $78 per ounce for the first time ever. Gold rose 1.3% to a fresh record of $4,561 per ounce, and platinum surged 10.5% to its own high, while palladium leapt 13%.

So far this year, silver has spiked 169%, platinum has shot up 172%, and palladium has soared 124%—all easily beating gold’s year-to-date gain of 73% as well as Nvidia’s 42% pop and the S&P 500’s 18% advance.

The latest rally came after the U.S. launched strikes on Islamic State targets in Nigeria on Thursday, adding to other geopolitical tensions.

Earlier in the week, the Trump administration continued to pile on more pressure on Venezuela by targeting additional oil tankers, squeezing a key source of revenue for the Maduro regime.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon sent large numbers of special-operations aircraft, troops and gear into the Caribbean, sources told the Wall Street Journal.

The extra military assets join a flotilla of Navy ships that has been building up in the region for months, while President Donald Trump hints that U.S. attacks will soon expand from suspected drug boats to targets on land.

With the threat of a new regional conflict breaking out, investors have sought out safe-havens. At the same time, debt worries have made precious metals appear safer than other assets like the dollar and yen.

Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in Substack post on Sunday that the so-called debasement trade has roared back, pointing out that precious metals began galloping higher after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell hinted at rate cuts over the summer.

“First, this trade is clearly triggered by Fed easing and related worries about debt monetization,” Brooks wrote. “After all, Chair Powell’s dovish speech at Jackson Hole on Aug. 22 and the latest Fed rate cut on Dec. 10 were big catalysts for precious metals to take off.”

As the U.S. and other top economies hurtle toward increasingly unsustainable levels of debt, investors fear that those governments will let inflation run hotter and erode the value of their bonds to lighten the burden, rather than reining in deficits.

This debasement trade isn’t just showing up in precious metals, Brooks added, noting that countries with low levels of public debt such as Switzerland or Sweden have seen their currencies move in tandem with gold and silver prices.

“It’s noteworthy that Sweden is so much in focus. The Krona has traditionally been a highly volatile currency that didn’t have safe haven attributes. The debasement trade is changing that,” he explained.

Similarly, market veteran Ed Yardeni attributed the surge in precious metals to concerns about excess stimulative effects of U.S. monetary and fiscal policies next year.

That’s as Wall Street expects more rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, which is also buying bonds again, while consumers will start to notice Trump’s tax cuts. Trump has also teased the possibility of “tariff dividend” checks, though Congress would have to approve them.

“In any event, the federal budget deficit could balloon significantly during the first four months of 2026, which might prompt the Bond Vigilantes to raise Treasury bond yields, causing a stock market correction,” Yardeni said in a note on Monday.

The shopping rush leading up to Christmas is over and in its place, like every year, another has begun as millions of people hunt for post-holiday deals and get in line to return gifts that didn’t fit, or didn’t hit quite right.

Holiday spending using cash or cards through Sunday has topped last year’s haul, according to data released this week by Visa’s Consulting & Analytics division and Mastercard SpendingPulse.

But growing unease over the U.S. economy and higher prices in part due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs have altered the behavior of some Americans. More are hitting thrift stores or other discounters in place of malls, according to data from Placer.ai. The firm tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage.

And they’re sticking more closely to shopping lists and doing more research before buying. That may explain why returns so far are down compared with last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics.

Here are three trends that defined the holiday shopping season so far:

Americans are still spending on gifts, yet increasingly that shopping is taking place at thrift and discount stores, according to data from Placer.ai.

That’s likely forcing traditional retailers such as department stores to fight harder for customers, Placer.ai said.

Clothing and electronics that traditionally dominate holiday sales did have a surge but struggled to grow, according to Placer.ai. Both goods are dominated by imports and thus, vulnerable to tariffs.

For example, traffic doubled in department stores during the week before Christmas, from Dec. 15 through Sunday, compared with the average shopping week this year. But traffic in the week before Christmas this year fell 13.2% compared with 2024.

Traffic surged 61% at traditional sellers of only clothing in the week before the holiday compared with the rest of the year. But again, compared with the runup to Christmas last year, sales slid 9%.

Some of that lost traffic may have migrated to the so-called off-price stores— chains like TJ Maxx. That sector had a sharp seasonal traffic bump of 85.1% and a gain of 1.2% in the week before the holiday.

But it was thrift stores that were red hot, with traffic jumping nearly 11% in the week before Christmas compared with last year.

“Whether hunting for a designer deal or uncovering a one-of-a-kind vintage piece, consumers increasingly favored discovery-driven experiences over the standardized assortments of traditional retail,” Shira Petrack, head of content at Placer.ai, said in a blog post Friday.

In the past it may have seemed gauche to gift your mother a gently used sweater or a pair of pants from a local thrift store, but seemingly not so amid all of the economic uncertainty and rising prices, according to Placer.ai.

Through the second half of 2025, thrift stores have seen at least a 10% increases in traffic compared with last year. That suggests that environmental concerns as well as economic issues are luring more Americans to second-hand stores, Placer.ai said. Visits to thrift stores generally do not take off during the holidays, yet in the most recent Black Friday weekend, sales jumped 5.5%, Placer.ai. reported.

In November, as customer traffic in traditional apparel stores fell more than 3%, traffic in thrift stores soared 12.7%, according to Placer.ai.

The thrift migration has altered the demographics of second-hand stores. The average household income of thrift customers hit $75,000 during October and November of this year, a slight uptick from $74,900 last year, $74,600 in 2023 well above the average income of 74,100 in 2022, based on demographic data from STI:PopStats combined with Placer.ai data.

U.S. sales at thrift chain Savers Value Village’s rose 10.5% in the three months ended Sept. 27 and the momentum continued through October, store executives said in late October.

“High household income cohort continues to become a larger portion of our consumer mix,” CEO Mark Walsh told analysts. “It’s trade down for sure, and our younger cohort also continues to grow in numbers. “

For the first six weeks of the holiday season, return rates have dipped from the same period a year ago, according to Adobe Analytics.

That suggests that shoppers are doing more research before adding something to their shopping list, and they’re being more disciplined in sticking to the lists they create, according to Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.

“I think it’s very indicative of consumers and how conscientiously they’ve purchased,” Pandya said. “Many of them are being very specific with how they spend their budget.”

From Nov. 1 to Dec. 12, returns fell 2.5% compared with last year, Adobe reported. In the seven days following Cyber Week — the five shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, returns fell 0.1%.

From the Nov. 1 through Dec. 12, online sales rose 6% to $187.3 billion, on track to surpass its outlook for the season, Adobe reported.

Between Dec. 26 to Dec. 31, returns are expected to rise by 25% to 35% compared with returns between Nov. 1 through Dec. 12, Adobe said, and it expects returns to remain elevated through the first two weeks of January, up 8% to 15%.

This is the first year that Adobe has tracked returns.

Still, the last week of December sees the greatest concentration of returns: one out of every eight returns in the 2024 holiday season took place between Dec. 26 and Dec 31, a trend expected to persist this year, Adobe said.

Dec 26 (Reuters) – Major U.S. stock indexes oscillated around record peaks on Friday in muted post-Christmas trading, while expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and safe haven appeal pushed precious metals prices to all-time highs.

Public holidays kept markets closed in Australia, Hong Kong and most of Europe, but the bourses that were open pushed towards ending the year in positive territory, with Asian stocks rising to multi-week highs in their trading session earlier.

The benchmark S&P 500 was last down 0.03% on the day in New York, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.18% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.07%, with all three set for double-digit yearly gains.

Megacap tech companies have driven the S&P 500 higher in 2025, and investors have been branching out to cyclical sectors including financials and materials, broadening the upswing and leaving the main U.S. indexes set for a third straight year of gains.

Data suggesting the U.S. economy is resilient, paired with the possibility that a new central bank chair to replace Jerome Powell could look to cut rates next year, is supporting markets. Recent pressure on AI stocks stemming from concerns over high valuations and profit-sapping capital expenditures has also lessened. 

Traders watched for a “Santa Claus rally” which is declared if the S&P 500 advances through the last five trading days of the current year and the first two in January. This would be considered a good omen for stocks in 2026 after a volatile year.

Geopolitical tensions enhanced the safe-haven appeal of precious metals the day after the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria. Silver hit an all-time high of $77.4 per ounce, on a 167% year-to-date surge, supported by supply deficits and the metal’s designation as a U.S. critical mineral.

A weakening dollar further burnished dollar-denominated gold for overseas investors, helping to send an ounce up 0.98% to $4,523.

Soojin Kim, commodities analyst at MUFG, said in a note the rally could continue, supported by “major banks forecasting further gains into 2026, the strength of physical demand and persistent geopolitical and monetary uncertainties.”

Oil prices settled more than 2% lower, dragged down by the prospect of a global supply glut and possible progress on a Ukraine peace deal.

DOLLAR’S DECEMBER BLUES    

Investors are preparing for 2026 focused on when the U.S. Federal Reserve might further cut rates and by how much, with traders pricing in at least two cuts over the year, although they do not expect the Fed to move before June. 

The central bank has projected one more cut next year but divisions among decision makers has left investors on edge about the policy outlook. 

Markets are also waiting for President Donald Trump to nominate a Fed chair to replace Powell, whose term ends in May. Any signal of what Trump will decide could sway markets in the coming week.

The U.S. dollar has been under pressure as a result, pushing the euro, sterling and the Swiss franc to highs. The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against six rivals, rose 0.08% to 98.02 on Friday.

The Japanese yen softened against the dollar as investors remained on watch for potential intervention to shore up the currency. Analysts say year-end trading, when volumes are thin, provide an opportunity for authorities to take action.

The yen has weakened despite the Bank of Japan delivering a well-telegraphed interest rate hike last week. Data on Friday showed that core consumer inflation in Japan’s capital slowed in December but stayed above the central bank’s 2% target, bolstering the case for further rate hikes.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie and Ankur Banerjee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Hugh Lawson and Nick Zieminski)

By Isla Binnie and Ankur Banerjee

At Drayman House in Walla Walla, people pay to store their wine in lockers in a climate-perfect basement.

The membership-based storage facility also entertains guests in the poshly appointed upstairs with leather divans, velvet chairs and polished knotty-fir under clacking heels and shiny loafers.

On a warmer than usual December evening, people gathered here to swash several French “grower champagnes.” Silver buckets of ice hold several sparkling offerings — blancs and rosés — to choose from.

“Scoop that caviar up, ladies and gents,” cried out Island Nguyen-Ainsworth, co-owner of Saffron Mediterranean Kitchen.

She’s doling out house-made chicken nuggets loaded down with creme fraiche and caviar.

The Northwest is increasingly home to new and interesting sparkling wine options. The Washington State Wine Commission reports the sparkling industry is seeing sparks of growth, especially in the $16 to $20 a bottle price range.

Northwest fizz with styles

There are several types of fizz being made in the region: “farmer fizz,” forced carbonation wines, Pét-nat and traditional method sparkling wines.

• French grower champagne or Northwest farmer fizz are wines made by the people who grew the grapes. They are estate-grown. Although only wines produced in Champagne, France, can be called champagne.
• “Pét-nat” is short for Pétillant Naturel, meaning a wine that is only fermented once in the bottle, many times without using added yeast and sulfites. It’s topped with a metal crown cap instead of a cork. Oftentimes, it’s not riddled or disgorged, so it might have a bit of yeasty cloudiness to the wine.
• Then there’s traditional method sparkling. This is a wine fermented until it’s dry, then a bit of sugar and yeast are added before putting it in a bottle. This wine is opened briefly after it’s been in the bottle for a while and turned upside down. The neck of the bottle is frozen, and a frozen plug of the lees is ejected, leaving the clear wine. Then more wine tops it off and the bottle gets a cork.

Someone who’s making traditional method and labor-intense sparkling wine is Corey Braunel, of Dusted Valley winery.

Braunel said there is a lot that can go wrong in the years it takes to finish about 200 cases of traditional method sparkling wine made available to purchase each year.

To make traditional method, some parts of the process have been automated, like the riddling, or hand-shifting bottles so the yeast falls into the neck of the bottle.

“Here are all of our babies,” he said, touching a metal cage packed with unlabeled, shiny bottles laying on their sides. This winery uses machines to do the riddling, but there’s still a lot to do — from picking and crushing the grapes to disgorging the bottles. That’s when winemakers remove an ice plug from the bottles’ necks with the yeast, or lees, from each bottle.

“All this work is done by hand,” Braunel said. “This is really and truly a labor of love. All of this is a labor of love.”

High-quality bubbles

Over in Prosser, Washington, is Northwest winemaker Andrew Gerow. He is the co-owner of Tirriddis sparkling winery. He said consumers should look for high-quality bubbles.

“A finer bubble. So, a smaller bubble,” Gerow said. “Sometimes you’ll have a sparkling wine that when you put it into your mouth the wine turns to foam. Because the bubbles are so aggressive and they’re not comfortable in the solution.

“Or sometimes you will pour a glass of sparkling and there is a little bit of sediment in it, and that sediment, all those pieces of sediment are like little microscopic mentos and so the bubbles froth out. It’s not a sparkling wine if there are no bubbles in it. The importance for a high quality bubble is the fineness of the bubble. And how long it lasts in the glass. How long it lasts in the bottle when it’s been opened.”

“

You would never see a sparkling malbec in France. They think I’m, like, nuts! But actually it’s turned out beautiful, so why not?”

— Gilles Nicault, winemaker

Another Walla Walla winemaker — Gilles Nicault of Long Shadows and Nine Hats — is from France. But he’s been in Washington making top wines for more than 30 vintages now. He said old world wines set the bar and are many times high quality, but they also follow rigid rules.

“When you buy champagne, you know what to expect to some extent,” Nicault said. “When you get some sparkling wine, it can be all kinds of things. Like the sparkling rosé I am making is malbec. French people are probably going crazy over it. You would never see a sparkling malbec in France. They think I’m, like, nuts! But actually it’s turned out beautiful, so why not?”

‘Wine that could go wrong’

Kaleigh Brook, an advanced sommelier — often shortened to som — said she’s in agreement. She also co-owns Tavern Ancestrale. Brook said there are some fresh, daring bubble bandits in the Northwest. People who are experimenting with different methods and varieties of winegrapes.

“It’s easy to make safe wine,” she said. “It’s not so easy to make wine that could go wrong.”

She also said she hunts out “honest wines.” While there are a lot of wineries struggling because sales are down, she said, small local producers are bottling interesting wines that are worth spending time with.

“Look for wineries that are being transparent about the way they grow their grapes, the way they make their wines and their story,” Brook said. “If you start asking for transparency and asking for honesty in wines, you’ll find honest wines. And in the end, you’ll drink better.”

Nuggets, friends and family

One thing is agreed; bubbles go great with nuggets, friends and family.

“‘Cause wine is about community, right?” said Brook. “It’s about sharing. It’s about bringing community together.”

“What I love is that it’s festive and bright and vibrant and always very enjoyable anywhere from brunch to dinner,” said Nicault.

Gerow smiled and said his favorite part of the sparkling wine making process is when someone opens his bottles in front of him, “You know, that’s why you make wine — is to share!”

And Braunel said any day is a sparkling day, “I like to joke around that I’m looking for more reasons to open bottles. Instead of more reasons to not open bottles if you know what I mean?”

Some Northwest wineries making sparkling:

Washington

Oregon

Is your Northwest favorite not on this list? Send an email to news@nwpb.org.

Anna King is a reporter with Northwest Public Broadcasting. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

A Northern Colorado company, based in Berthoud, is helping major brands around the world produce more eco-friendly packaging and products. Living Ink Technologies, founded by Colorado State University graduates, is continuing to grow its operation in the region.

“Living Ink is a waste-to-value company. So, we take biomass waste, we do our thermal treatment, and we make an alternative to carbon black,” said Scott Fulbright, CEO and cofounder of the company.

Carbon black is found in most products and packaging that contain black ink. Fulbright said carbon black requires petroleum to create and is less eco-friendly than the alternative ink they are creating.

To create an alternative option, Living Ink has found a method to create black ink from waste created by other companies and humans, via biomass.

“Biomass like algae, like spent yeast from breweries and things like that,” Fulbright said.

Living Ink Technologies has partnered with companies like those that produce Budweiser beer. The company sends Living Ink their spent yeast, and then the team in Berthoud helps flip the product into a sustainable and reliable black ink.

Living Ink’s product has already been used in major brands like Nike and Patagonia.

Currently, Fulbright admits that his product does come at a more expensive cost than carbon black ink. However, he said they are working on a trajectory that would make it more affordable and appealing to companies beyond their branding of being eco-friendly.

“We do think we can compete, and potentially undercut traditional carbon black, as we use these different waste streams in our process,” Fulbright said.

Fulbright said his team has moved around Colorado, but found home in Berthoud thanks to the talent pool in the region.

“We ended up in Berthoud because there is a great talent pool in Fort Collins, and there is a great talent pool in Denver and Loveland,” Fulbright said.

Fulbright said his company hopes to one day be able to work, in part, out of the Budweiser facility in Fort Collins. He said, by working directly in the facility, they could make a more cost-efficient way of flipping the company’s spent yeast and turning it into the ink on their packaging, all in-house.

“So, we are working with their Fort Collins facility right now, and we are taking some of their spent grain and yeast from their process as our feedstock,” Fulbright said. “Ideally, making them more profitable and sustainable in their overall manufacturing cost.”

While overall casino gambling revenue was down slightly in November compared with October, revenue from sports betting set an all-time record.

According to the latest report from the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission, the state’s five racetrack casinos brought in just over $1.5 million in total sports betting revenue in November. That was about 25% higher than the previous record of $1.2 million set in November 2024.

As is the case just about every month, the WarHorse casinos in Omaha and Lincoln accounted for most of that revenue, about $1.2 million, but other casinos also saw strong sports betting interest.

Grand Island Casino Resort topped $200,000 in monthly sports betting revenue for the first time ever in November, a number that was nearly 80% higher than a year ago.

Vince Fiala, general manager of the Grand Island Casino Resort, said this time of year college football is the big driver of sports betting interest.

“I can tell you that during the fall … we take a lot of bets on college football,” Fiala said.

He said that by far the most popular football bet is a parlay, where bettors try to predict the outcomes of several games.

“Here for us, the parlays are probably the biggest thing, when you bet two or three different things, because the odds of winning are a little bit higher, but the payouts are a lot higher, too,” Fiala said.

He also credited the rise in sports betting revenue to more casinos in the state and expanded sports betting operations. For example, when the previous record was set in November 2024, Lake Mac Casino & Resort in Ogallala didn’t exist, and some other casinos were still operating in temporary spaces or in spaces that were still being built out.

Grand Island Casino Resort, for instance, didn’t open its fully expanded casino until this past April.

“You know, for us, we opened a new full resort on April 10 of 2025, and with that, we increased the size of our sports book, and we have just two walls of TVs. So that has made a big difference for us,” Fiala said.

Overall, the five casinos had total revenue of $24.1 million last month, making it the third best month ever behind October, which set the all-time record with $24.6 million in revenue, and May, which had $24.2 million.

Total revenue for the year, which stood at nearly $236 million as of the end of November, is on track to end up around $260 million. That would be a nearly 80% increase over the $145.7 million in casino revenue for all of 2024. About $8.1 million of that revenue is from sports betting, up from $4.7 million for all of last year.