Dow ekes out gains, bitcoin slumps as ‘Santa Claus’ rally takes a pause

Stocks closed mixed amid a light trading session on Thursday following the Christmas holiday break.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) closed just below the flat line. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose about 28 points, or nearly 0.1%.

Stocks were little changed throughout the session, with the major averages flipping between positive and negative territory as the market struggled to meaningfully extend its Santa Claus rally.

Small cap stocks however rose as the Russell 2000 (^RUT) gained more than 0.9%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 15% year-to-date, but Boeing (BA) and Nike (NKE) have been the big laggards of 2024.

As Bespoke Investment Group pointed out, with the exception of Intel (which was booted off the blue-chip index in place of AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) in November), industrial giant Boeing is the biggest laggard, down 30% since the start of the year after a slew of production and safety challenges.

Sports apparel com[any Nike is also down about 29% since the start of the year.

Tesla (TSLA) extended declines to 2% on Thursday afternoon, making it difficult for the Nasdaq (^IXIC) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) to firmly trade in positive territory.

Still, shares of the EV maker are up more than 80% year to-date. The majority of those stock gains were achieved following Donald Trump’s presidential victory in November, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk was instrumental in supporting.

Trading volume for Tesla stock on Thursday was about 30% less than average daily volume, according to Yahoo Finance chart data.

Bitcoin was trading 3% lower on Thursday afternoon as prices hovered below the $96,000 level.

The token is down about 10% from its all-time highs north of $108,000 reached over a week ago.

Despite the recent dip, bitcoin is up nearly 120% year to date, far outperforming other asset classes like gold and the major stock market averages.

As Yahoo Finance’s David Hollerith reports, 2024 has been a year when everything changed for the cryptocurrency once viewed as a fringe sideshow, a concern for D.C. policymakers, and a subject of ridicule for top Wall Street figures.

Crypto’s widespread acceptance this year translated into major gains for investors who were along for the ride.

Stocks wavered by 1 p.m. ET, with the major averages flipping between positive and negative territory.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) hugged the flat line while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was also little changed.

Shares of EV giant Tesla (TSLA) and social media company Meta (META) both fell, weighing on the Communication Services and Consumer Discretionary sectors.

Meanwhile, chip stock Broadcom (AVGO) rose for a fourth straight day.

GameStop (GME) stock rose as much as 10% early Thursday before paring gains. Shares were up roughly 6% midday.

The stock’s gain comes after infamous meme stock trader “Roaring Kitty” — whose real name is Keith Gill — posted a mysterious photo of a wrapped present on Dec. 25.

GME’s climb Thursday puts the stock on track to notch a roughly 16% gain over the past five days. The stock is up over 88% in 2024, fueled by Roaring Kitty’s return to social media after three years of silence.

Still, GameStop shares remain well below all-time highs of over $80 during the stock’s short squeeze in 2021.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) erased early session losses by 11:30 a.m. ET.

Shares of Honeywell (HON) and Boeing (BA) rose more than 1%, helping lift the blue-chip index slightly above the flatline.

Apple (AAPL) touched intraday highs after a price target raise to a Street high of $325 from Wedbush analysts Dan Ives.

AI chip heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) pared early morning losses to trade just below the flatline.

Apple (AAPL) stock hit an all-time intraday high Thursday after a nod of confidence in its continued upswing from Wall Street.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives raised his price target on Apple shares to a new Street high of $325, anticipating “a golden era of growth” for the Tim Cook-helmed tech giant in 2025.

Apple stock touched $260 early Thursday before modestly paring gains. The stock was still on track to notch another record close after hitting a high of $258.20 on Christmas Eve. Shares have rallied more than 11% over the past month, and the iPhone maker is nearing a $4 trillion market cap.

Read the full story here.

Shares of AI chip heavyweight (NVDA) fell more than 1% while the rest of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks wavered on Thursday.

Technology stocks led the modest market declines as the “Santa Claus rally” from Wednesday took a pause after the Christmas holiday break.

Shares of iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) and Google parent company Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) flipped between positive and negative territory during morning trading.

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley reports:

If 2024 was the year of AI chatbots becoming more useful, 2025 will be the year AI agents begin to take over. Autonomous and semi-autonomous AI systems, you can think of agents as super powered AI bots that can take actions on your behalf, such as pulling data from incoming emails and importing it into different apps.

You’ve probably heard rumblings of agents already. Companies ranging from Nvidia (NVDA) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to Microsoft (MSFT) and Salesforce (CRM) are increasingly talking up agentic AI, a fancy way of referring to AI agents, claiming that it will change the way both enterprises and consumers think of AI technologies.

Read more here.

Stocks opened lower on Thursday following a Christmas break, putting a pause on a Santa Claus rally.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was down 0.3% while the the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) declined 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) lost 0.4%, leading the way down.

All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 were lower, with Real Estate stocks leading to the downside.