Stock futures barely budged early Tuesday, and honestly, you could feel the tension in the air after the S&P 500 closed out two straight days in the red. Futures on the S&P 500 merely hovered. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1%, while the Dow barely moved up 3 points. Thus, a lot of anxiety but little actual movement.
Key Data and Fed Minutes in Focus
Monday was rough across the board. The S&P 500 fell by 0.35%. The Nasdaq Composite saw a 0.5% decline. The Dow Jones fell 249 points, or 0.51%. The major tech companies that drove the majority of this year’s rally saw investors retreat; Nvidia fell more than 1%, Palantir fell 2.4%, Oracle fell 1.3%, and Tesla simply collapsed, falling more than 3%.
Barbara Doran, CEO of BD8 Capital Partners, summed up the mood on CNBC’s Closing Bell. She pointed out that the market might be “overbuilding the AI bubble, and you can see the hesitation among investors when it comes to the sky-high price tags on tech stocks. The pain wasn’t just in tech, though—the materials sector took a hit too. Newmont slid 5.6% after silver futures posted their steepest single-day drop since 2021.
Now, everyone’s waiting for fresh numbers and clues from the Fed. Home price data drops at 9 a.m. ET, and the Fed’s December meeting minutes hit at 2 p.m. ET. Traders are hungry for any signs about inflation and where the central bank is headed as we move into early 2026.
S&P 500 Sector Winners and Laggards of 2025
Trading will likely stay quiet ahead of the holiday—markets are closed on Thursday. Even including the recent slide, investors still have plenty to be happy about in 2025: Even after its decline, the S.&P. 500 is up 17.4 percent for the year. The Dow, on the other hand, is up 13.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite has soared 21.4%.
Looking at the S&P 500’s sector winners and losers for the year 2025, which is about to end, it’s clear where the action has been. Communication services and information technology led the way, up 32.5% and nearly 25%, fueled by the nonstop hype around AI and data. Western Digital’s stock exploded, up almost 300%. Micron Technology climbed about 250%. Palantir, in defense tech, shot up an impressive 140%.
But it hasn’t been great for everyone. Real estate only made a 0.5% gain this year, hardly moving at all. Iron Mountain fell 21%, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities fell almost 50%.
Investors are therefore optimistic as 2025 draws to a close, but not naively so. Gains at year’s end indicate that people have faith in the economy, but there are still important questions: Will inflation remain under control? What’s the Fed’s next move? And how much longer can the AI rally keep running? That’s what everyone’s watching right now.
