Nvidia, Intel help market recovery after midday swing
Furniture retailers rise after Trump delays tariff hike
Tesla slipped after annual sales fell for a second straight year
Industry, utilities report gains
By Saeed Azhar, Purvi Agarwal and Nikhil Sharma
NEW YORK, Jan 2 (Reuters) –
The Dow ended higher on Friday, snapping a four-day losing streak starting in 2026, but gains at chipmakers Nvidia and Intel failed to lift other Wall Street indexes into solidly positive territory.
In 2025, the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all posted double-digit gains, their third straight year in the green, most recently in 2019-2021.
Chip stocks rallied on Friday, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index surging. He also acquired industry and public services. Caterpillar and Boeing surged to lift the Dow.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were weighed down by losses in consumer goods stocks, including Amazon. Tesla also fell after annual sales fell for a second straight year. The S&P 500 gained 12.52 points, or 0.18%, to end at 6,858.02, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.30 points, or 0.02%, to 23,236.69, according to preliminary data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 311.99 points, or 0.67%, to 48,383.22. “Equities are trading expensive on 18 of the 20 measures and we see increased risks to the index level in the near term,” said Savita Subramanian, equity and quantitative strategist at Bank of America.
Historically, the S&P 500 is better quality, less leveraged and less leveraged as currently constituted, “but there are many risks to the index in 2026,” the note said.
The recent selloff defied expectations of a “Santa Claus rally,” when markets tend to get late-stage support during the last five trading days of December and the first two of January, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
The trajectory of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy will set the tone for global markets in 2026, after recent economic data and expectations of a new Fed dovish seat pushed investors further bearish.
“The next Fed chairman is probably going to be a lot more dovish than Jerome Powell. So I would imagine that in the second half of this year we’re actually going to see interest rates go down substantially,” said Dennis Dick, chief market strategist at the Stock Trader Network.
“And that will be good for all stocks, not just tech stocks.”
The key point for January will be next week’s labor market data, especially after Powell warned at the central bank’s December meeting against further rate cuts until there is more clarity on the jobs front.
Wall Street saw a stellar 2025 comeback from April lows when Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs sent global markets tumbling, sending investors away from U.S. stocks and threatening growth by clouding the outlook for interest rates.
A possible tariff surprise from Trump will be on the radar, especially after the White House said he signed a statement delaying tariff increases on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for another year.
Shares of furniture retailers Wayfair, Williams-Sonoma and RH ended significantly higher. (Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and David Gregorio)
