4:16pm: Wall Street stumbles into 2025
Wall Street kicked off the new year with a cautious tone as stocks closed lower to start the first day of trading in 2025.
The Dow Jones fell 152 points, or 0.4%, to close at 42,392. The S&P 500 declined 13 points, or 0.2%, ending the session at 5,869. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 30 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 19,281.
The market's downward trend continued from the end of 2024, with major indices experiencing their fifth consecutive day of losses. Investors grappled with profit-taking amid elevated equity valuations and uncertainty about the economic outlook for 2025.
Notable movers included Tesla, which saw its shares tumble nearly 6% after reporting its first annual decline in vehicle deliveries since 2011. Apple also faced pressure, with its stock dropping about 3% following rare price reductions on its latest iPhone models in China.
3:15pm: Tesla delivery numbers disappoint
Tesla's fourth quarter vehicle delivery numbers disappointed Wall Street but analysts at Wedbush remain confident the EV-maker can accelerate delivery growth into 2025.
The analysts see Tesla achieving 20% to 30% delivery growth, boosted by the launch of its lower-priced EV in early 2025.
“Overall we would characterize this is a respectable delivery number although the Street and bulls wanted to see a 500,000-plus number and the stock will be a bit weak on the knee-jerk reaction,” Wedbush analysts wrote in a note to clients.
“Any sell-off today on weaker Q4 delivery numbers we are strong buyers.”
1:52pm: Jobless claims a wake-up call
The sharp drop in US jobless claims, reported earlier on Thursday, is a "wake-up call for investors," says Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory and asset management organizations.
“It’s yet another indicator that the world’s largest economy remains extraordinarily robust, even as inflation and elevated interest rates persist. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines. It’s time to seize the opportunities emerging from a strong economy.”
Jobless claims in the US dropped by 9,000 to 211,000 last week, the lowest level since March, indicating a resilient labor market and high job security for workers. The four-week average of claims also fell to 223,250, signaling economic strength.
However, Green noted that this robust job market could prolong inflation pressures, increasing the likelihood of sustained higher interest rates.
12:35pm: Red again
Stock markets were back in the red just after the midpoint of Thursday's trading session.
The Dow fell 0.5% at 42,336, reflecting cautious sentiment among investors. The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% to 5,858, while the Nasdaq dropped 0.5%, currently at 19,216.
11:32am: Back in the green
Markets were trending positively in midmorning trading, with all major indices back in the green.
The Dow is up 0.1%, reflecting a cautious recovery after recent losses, while the S&P 500 has climbed 0.3%. The Nasdaq leads the gains with a 0.4% increase.
10.36am: GlobalFoundries settles lawsuits with IBM
Shares in Globalfoundries Inc (NASDAQ:GFS) are up 1.2% after a settlement was reached to resolve ongoing lawsuits with International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM).
All litigation, including potential breach of contract, trade secrets and intellectual property claims between the two companies have now been resolved, GF said in a statement, adding that it allows the companies to "explore new opportunities for collaboration".
Both companies expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
GF chief executive Thomas Caulfield said "we look forward to new opportunities to build upon our long-standing partnership to further strengthen the semiconductor industry" and IBM boss Arvind Krishna said resolving the disputes "is a significant step forward for our companies and will allow us to both focus on future innovations that will benefit our organizations and customers".
10.12am: Unity Software jumps on 'Roaring Kitty' message
Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U) shares surged 15% following a cryptic social media post from well-followed meme stock trader Keith Gill, known online as Roaring Kitty.
Gill, who was a key player in the GameStop rally of 2021, posted a short clip on social media of the musician Rick James, who has many songs on his back catalogue, including one called 'Unity'.
Even though his most famous song is 'Super Freak', some investors have taken the post as encouragement to purchase shares of video game technology firm Unity Software, which had lost about 40% last year while key rival AppLovin surged more than 735% over the same period.
Also boosting Unity was a block-trade of 1.32 million shares at a market value of $29.7 million earlier this week. Miaow!
9.46am: Nasdaq wobbles at the open
US stocks opened 2025 higher and everything seemed to be starting the new year smoothly before the Nasdaq quickly dropped into the red.
The S&P 500 is up 0.25% after the first minutes of trading of 2025, and the Dow Jones has climbed 0.5%.
The Nasdaq Composite started on the front foot, then turned tail and dropped 0.15%, with Tesla Ins down 5% as one of the key drags after the deliveries miss earlier.
Other notable fallers include Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, ETR:APC), down 1.5%, and video games maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc (NASDAQ:TTWO), down 0.9%.
Now the tech-powered index is just back above flat.
The Russell 2000 mid- and small-cap index is the top mover, climbing 0.9%.
9.11am: Tesla deliveries miss
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) just delivered 495,570 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of last year, which was a record high but missed expectations of 506,800 deliveries.
The EV maker said 459,445 vehicles rolled off its production lines in the final three months of the year.
Q4 deliveries of Model 3/Y EVs numbered 471,930, which was below the estimated 484,575, while other models were slightly higher than expected at 23,640.
Tesla also deployed 11.0 GWh of energy storage products – another record – but the EV deliveries miss has set the shares for a decline of over 3% in pre-market trading.
8.55am: How important is today's market movement?
Most investors at the start of the year will be thinking about what’s going to happen and if any changes are needed to their portfolios but, says Deutsche Bank's Henry Allen, "don’t expect to get many clues today from the first trading day of the year".
For the last four years, the first trading day has been a "contrarian indicator", he points out, with the S&P 500 ending the year in the opposite direction it moved on the first day.
Last year was an example, starting with three daily declines in a row but with the index ending the year up more than 20%.
"As we look forward to the year ahead, it’s also worth remembering that none of the last five years have exactly gone to plan or consensus in the macro sphere."
In terms of what the year ahead might bring, Allen flags the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20 as well as the new session of Congress, which begins tomorrow with a Republican majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
"So for markets and the economy, a big question will be how the new administration moves on new tariffs, and which countries they’re focused on [...and...] an open question as to whether various deals might be reached with other countries to avoid higher tariffs, or whether they’ll get imposed, which in turn opens up the risk of retaliatory tariffs in response.
"So there’s the potential for a significant shift in global trade patterns, and we know from Trump’s first term that markets can be very reactive to any tariff news."
8.40am: Nasdaq to lead Wall Street higher on Thursday
Wall Street stocks have been tipped to start 2025 in a positive manner on Thursday, after jobless claims fell to an eight-month low and ahead of Tesla delivery numbers.
Futures markets predicted the Nasdaq 100 to lead the way, up almost 1%, with S&P 500 futures yp 0.8% and Dow Jones futures up 0.7%.
Earlier, initial jobless claims fell to 211,000 for the week ending December 28, the Labor Department said, below the previous week's 219,000 that was revised up to 220,000 and below the average estimate 221,000.
Continuing claims for the week ending December 21 fell to 1844K from 1910K revised down to 1896K, and below the forecast 1890K.
Tesla's fourth-quarter delivery data will be due at 9am.