Dow Jones Today: Stocks Slip as Tech Leads Decline, Metals Retreat from Record Highs

Wall Street opened the final week of 2025 on a cautious note, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipping 0.4%, as reported by Investopedia, CNBC, and Yahoo Finance. Investors had just enjoyed a five-session winning streak and a robust year overall, but Monday’s session saw a quick reversal as technology stocks led the decline and precious metals retreated sharply from their record highs.

Monday’s losses were felt across the three major indices. The S&P 500 dropped 0.4%, the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.6% to 0.7% depending on the source, and the Dow Jones gave up 182 points, or 0.4%. This downshift was led by the tech sector, which has been the engine behind much of 2025’s gains but faced profit-taking as the year drew to a close. Shares of Nvidia and Tesla, two giants whose meteoric rises have defined the artificial intelligence boom, both pulled back by more than 2%. Other major tech names in the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven,’ including Oracle, Meta Platforms, Palantir Technologies, and Advanced Micro Devices, also registered losses, while Apple managed a modest gain.

The retreat in technology stocks comes after a banner year. The Nasdaq is up over 21% year-to-date, the S&P 500 has gained more than 17%, and the Dow has climbed over 14%, on track for its strongest performance since 2021. Yet as investors looked for signs of a ‘Santa Claus rally’ to cap off the year, internal market momentum and profit-taking became dominant themes—especially with a light economic calendar offering few fresh catalysts.

Precious metals, which have been among the year’s hottest trades, saw dramatic reversals. Gold futures dropped more than 4% to around $4,355 an ounce, after setting an all-time high of nearly $4,585 just days earlier. Silver futures fell nearly 7% to $71.90 an ounce after touching a record above $82.65, with the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) losing more than 9%. The metals’ volatility was a reminder that after a furious rally—silver surged almost 150% in 2025—momentum can reverse quickly, especially when traders lock in profits at the year’s end.

Other corners of the market saw their own stories play out. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures surged more than 2% to $58.10 per barrel, buoyed by U.S.-Venezuela tensions. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.12%, reflecting investors’ cautious stance ahead of the new year. Bitcoin, another star performer of recent years, traded around $87,500, down from an overnight high of $90,300. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index ticked lower to 97.99, continuing its decline after earlier shocks from tariff plans and shifting global trade sentiment. Analysts from Deutsche Bank, cited by Investopedia, expect further dollar weakness into 2026, though at a slower pace than the drop seen in 2025.

On the corporate front, DigitalBridge Group (DBRG) shares soared more than 10% after news broke of a $4 billion acquisition by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, part of a broader campaign to capitalize on the AI-driven digital infrastructure boom. The deal follows SoftBank’s high-profile exits from Nvidia and major investments in OpenAI, underlining how the tech and infrastructure storylines remain intertwined at year’s end.

The housing market delivered a surprise: pending home sales in November rose 3.3% month-over-month, the strongest performance since February 2023, as reported by the National Association of Realtors. The West region posted the largest monthly jump, while the South led year-over-year gains. Improved affordability, driven by lower mortgage rates and wage growth outpacing home prices, helped fuel buyer momentum. However, not all the news was positive: foreclosure activity rose 21% year-over-year in November, with some states like Delaware and New Jersey seeing particularly sharp increases. While volumes remain below historical highs, the trend signals that higher housing costs and economic pressures are still impacting homeowners.

In an unusual twist, the humble penny took a bow in 2025. The U.S. government ceased minting pennies in November, citing inefficiency and cost—each coin cost nearly $3.70 to produce. While most Americans shrugged, coin collectors mourned the loss, gathering for a symbolic farewell at the Lincoln Memorial and hoping that renewed interest in numismatics might emerge from the penny’s demise.

Looking ahead, all eyes turn to the Federal Reserve. The minutes from the December meeting, due Wednesday, are expected to offer fresh insight into the central bank’s divided outlook as it heads into 2026. About 80% of traders expect the Fed to hold rates steady in January, but uncertainty remains for March, with divisions among policymakers likely to persist.

As the curtain falls on 2025, the market’s narrative is far from simple. Investors face a blend of profit-taking, sector rotations, and macro uncertainty, but the backdrop is one of solid annual gains and resilient market momentum. The final days of the year may not deliver fireworks, but they encapsulate the balancing act that has defined Wall Street’s journey through a volatile, opportunity-rich 2025.

The year’s end finds the Dow and its peers at a crossroads: the optimism of strong annual returns is tempered by caution and rotation, reminding us that markets rarely move in straight lines. With tech and metals cooling and the Fed looming, the story of 2025 closes not with a bang, but with a thoughtful pause—leaving investors pondering what surprises 2026 may hold.