4:05pm: Stocks lower on Fed meeting minutes
US stocks edged lower following the release of the minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting, which showed officials saw their decision to cut interest rates as a close call.
The Nasdaq was down 0.2% at 23,419 points, the Dow Jones was down 0.2% at 48,367 points and the S&P 500 slipped 0.1% at 6,896 points.
2:22pm: Fed divided on December cut, minutes show
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, released Tuesday, showed a divide among policymakers over whether to pause further interest rate cuts following the latest reduction, even as most officials said additional easing could be appropriate if inflation declines as expected.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) cut the federal funds rate by 25 basis points at its December 9 to 10 meeting, setting the target range at 3.5% to 3.75%.
According to the minutes, some members favored leaving rates unchanged for a period after the December cut to assess the lagged effects of earlier policy moves and to gain confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward the Fed’s 2% goal.
By contrast, the minutes said that “most participants judged that further downward adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate if inflation declined over time as expected,” reflecting support for a gradual move toward a more neutral policy stance amid rising downside risks to employment.
Three officials dissented from the December decision. Stephen Miran preferred a larger, 50-basis-point cut, while Austan Goolsbee and Jeffrey Schmid voted to keep rates unchanged, citing concerns that inflation remained above target and had not shown sufficient progress.
Policymakers agreed that inflation was still somewhat elevated and that labor market conditions had continued to soften.
The minutes highlighted that monetary policy was not on a preset path and that future decisions would depend on incoming data and the balance of risks.
The FOMC’s next policy meeting is scheduled for January 27 to 28.
1:45pm: Proactive news headlines
- Millennial Potash Corp (TSX-V:MLP, OTCQB:MLPNF) announced it has filed an updated technical report for the North Target of its Banio Potash Project in Gabon, in compliance with National Instrument 43-101.
- U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) announced on Tuesday two developments in its exchange-traded fund (ETF) lineup. The GO GOLD and Precious Metals Miner ETF (GOAU) is transitioning from a passive index strategy to active management, while the Technology and Aerospace & Defense ETF (WAR) is marking its one-year anniversary.
- 374Water Inc (NASDAQ:SCWO) announced that it has been awarded a Waste Destruction Services project to remove per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from biosolids and water treatment residuals for the City of St. Cloud, Minnesota.
- New Era Energy & Digital (NASDAQ:NUAI) said it will contest a civil complaint recently filed by the State of New Mexico Attorney General and the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, calling the allegations unfounded and stating they do not affect the company’s core business.
12:05pm: S&P 500 top performers of 2025
It’s been a strong year for US stocks, with the top-performing S&P 500 companies delivering remarkable gains fueled by AI-driven demand, commodity surges, and domestic manufacturing and trade policy tailwinds.
The storage and memory sector, including SanDisk, Western Digital, Seagate, and Micron, was among the year’s top performers due to increased investment in AI hardware.
SanDisk, spun off from Western Digital to again be an independent public company in February, develops NAND flash memory, solid-state drives, and embedded storage solutions for consumer devices and enterprise data centers.
In 2025, SanDisk was a key driver of the storage sector’s explosive growth as AI data centers required exabyte-scale flash for training and inference. Partnerships with hyperscalers such as Microsoft Azure enabled production ramps, while innovations like 232-layer QLC flash reduced costs and boosted margins. Read more
10:55am: Tesla previews Q4 sales drop
Tesla has released a company-compiled consensus of analyst expectations for its fourth-quarter 2025 vehicle deliveries, offering a lower forecast than many Wall Street estimates.
The figures were published on the company’s investor relations page ahead of the official delivery report, expected in early January.
According to Tesla, analysts on average anticipate deliveries of 422,850 vehicles in Q4, a decline of 15% compared with the same period in 2024.
This contrasts with a Bloomberg-compiled average of approximately 445,000 vehicles, representing a 10% year-over-year drop.
The company’s disclosure highlights a sequential decline from the third quarter of 2025, when Tesla delivered a record 497,099 vehicles, representing a decrease of roughly 75,000 units.
While Tesla has previously compiled average delivery estimates from analysts, the company has not routinely published these figures publicly. The decision to share them now appears aimed at managing market expectations before the official Q4 report.
9:45am: Wall Street wavers
US stocks slipped at Tuesday’s open ahead as investors awaited the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, data which could move markets on one of the last trading days of the year.
Traders will be looking to the minutes for clues on the Fed’s next move, with the majority of bets (about 84%) on the central bank holding rates steady at its January meeting.
The Dow Jones was down about 0.2% at 48,383 points, the Nasdaq slipped 0.1% to 23,452 points and the S&P 500 was down 0.1% at 6,901 points.
8:17am: Stocks steady
US stock futures were little changed on Tuesday, signaling a cautious tone as investors assess recent losses and prepare for one of the final policy signals of the year.
The muted premarket action follows a modest pullback in Wall Street’s major indexes at the start of the week, driven largely by selling pressure in heavyweight technology stocks.
Contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq traded close to unchanged overnight, reflecting a market in consolidation mode rather than one poised for a strong directional move.
On Monday, shares of Nvidia and Tesla led the Nasdaq lower, highlighting a late-year shift away from megacap tech leadership after a strong run earlier in 2025.
Attention now turns to the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, due later today. Policymakers cut interest rates for a third consecutive time at that meeting but signaled increasing caution, raising expectations that the pace of easing could slow or pause in 2026.
With little major economic data left on the calendar, the minutes represent one of the last events with the potential to move markets before year-end.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, said fading momentum has become a dominant theme as the year draws to a close.
“It’s the penultimate trading day of 2025, and the overriding theme is that global stock indices have lost momentum into year end,” Brooks wrote, pointing to strong year-to-date returns and thinner holiday trading conditions.
She noted that US stocks have underperformed global peers by the widest margin since 2009, even as valuations, particularly in the technology sector, have continued to rise.
“Ironically, this has happened even though valuations for US companies, especially tech companies, have soared this year,” Brooks wrote, adding that the gap has encouraged some investors to seek opportunities outside US markets.
On the policy front, Brooks played down expectations that the Fed minutes would signal a more aggressive easing path.
“We doubt that today’s minutes will shift the dial for markets,” she wrote, warning that bond yields remain a key risk to watch as 2026 approaches, with the US 10-year Treasury yield holding above 4.1% into year-end.