The S&P 500 rallied again on Friday to finish a bumpy week with a slight gain.
The market benchmark rose 0.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average Rose 182 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.3%.
The Nasdaq rose 0.5% on the week; at Wednesday’s close, it was down 2.2% on the week.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury note rose to 3.48%. The 10-year yield was up 4.15%.
A broad stock market rally lifted the major indexes as traders continued to buy in the wake of the cooler-than-expected consumer price index reading released Thursday. Momentum and risk stocks led the pack, but industrials, health care, financials, and materials were also rising.
“After an economic data drought triggered by the government shutdown, the Fed action this past week alongside several data releases provide some comfort to underlying soft landing conditions and the potential for further Fed cuts into ’26,” writes Citi strategist Scott Chronert.
The month of December has been a bumpy one so far: Stocks rallied to fresh highs before falling sharply on selling among highflying AI stocks.
“Confidence on the AI infrastructure theme has gotten a boost from earnings reports as well as funding discussions for OpenAI,” Chronert writes. “The combination of these forces has lifted equity prices into the end of the week, potentially salvaging what was looking more and more like Grinch trading action into the holiday season.”
This was the last full week of trading of 2025. The U.S. stock market will close early on Dec. 24 and won’t reopen until Dec. 26. Dec. 24 is also the start of the Santa Claus rally period, in which stocks typically rally in the final five days of a year and the first two of the following year.
“As we enter the best two-week stretch of the year through year end, investors are focused on the heavily discussed Santa Clause rally, though a consistent theme of the past five years is that historical patterns have provided little direction,” writes Mark Hackett, Chief Market Strategist at Nationwide.