Friends

It was another very quiet day of trading as it appears that market participants are content to wait until next year to make any moves. The release of the Fed minutes from early December indicate that Fed officials were somewhat reluctant to lower rates and likely will continue to be going forward. That could be an interesting stand off developing between the new Fed Chair who will arrive next spring and the rank-and-file Fed Governors.

As for the markets, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 94 points to finish the day at 48,367. The S&P 500 was down 9 points to close at 6,896. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 55 points to close at 23,419. Gold was up $22 to trade at $4,366 per ounce, while oil was down $.11 to trade at $57.97 per barrel WTI.

One more day of trading before we put a bow on 2025. It has been a good year for stocks in the end, despite the nearly 20% decline in the S&P 500 that we saw in the Spring. Let’s get this one put to bed before I start pontificating about 2026.

Have a nice evening everyone.