Newscasts - Wall Street ends 2025's final session lower but posts big annual gains

Vanda Pharmaceuticals

31/12/2025 23:20

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Source: 'Reuters - Business videos'

Description: Wall Street's major indexes ended lower in the final trading session of 2025, but notched big annual gains after a roller-coaster year dominated by President Donald Trump's tariff uncertainties and a euphoria around AI-focused stocks. Alex Cohen has more.

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Video Transcript:

US stocks ended the year on a down note Wednesday. The Dow fell about 0.6% while the S&P 500 and NASDAQ dropped about 0.75% each. However, for 2025, the Dow added about 13%, the S&P 500 climbed 16.4% and the NASDAQ jumped 20.4%. The major indexes advanced by double-digits for the third consecutive year, a run last seen during 2019 to 2021. Wall Street made a stellar comeback from April's lows when Trump's 'Liberation Day' tariffs sparked a meltdown in global markets, sent investors away from US stocks and threatened growth by clouding the interest rate outlook. A rally in AI-related shares drove stocks higher with bellwether chipmaker NVIDIA up 39% year-to-date, becoming the first publicly-traded company to hit a $5 trillion market valuation. Dennis Follmer, Chief Investment Officer with Montis Financial, says he thinks these technology stocks are in a bubble, but it may not deflate for a couple of more years.

This whole year has been sort of what I call a low-quality rally where speculation in a lot of places has won out over profitability and earnings. So, I think there's definitely some undeniable signs of market euphoria. That doesn't mean it can't last for another couple of years. But I think what it does mean is that price matters. The price you pay for an investment matters. So, you know, history would tell us if we're buying the S&P 500 at these current valuations, we really shouldn't be expecting to see a lot in terms of returns for the next 5 or 10 years.

Stocks on the move Wednesday included Nike which gained 4% after an SEC filing showed CEO Elliott Hill bought about $1 million dollars of stock on Monday. And Vanda Pharmaceuticals surged 25.5% after the US Food and Drug Administration approved its drug for the prevention of motion-induced vomiting.