U.S. stocks held close to all-time highs on Friday, while the run-up in precious metals broke new ground.
Most-active silver futures surged 6.7% to around $76.50 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 1.6% to $4,573 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. WTI crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, are up around 3% so far this week, on pace for their best weekly gains in two months.
U.S. stock indexes swung between small gains and losses in thin trading. The major gauges rose for a fifth straight session 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. Materials stocks in the S&P 500 gained 0.4%.
Nvidia stock climbed 1.4% 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 9% 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.
