Investopedia Markets News (all except PF)

• A decision by CME Group to adjust its metals contracts halted a recent rally in precious metals
• Traders must apply more upfront cash to bet on metals prices
• Gold and silver remain on pace for their highest returns since 1979.

After a strong week-long rally that sent gold, silver and other precious metals prices to all-time highs, prices fell sharply Monday after exchange operator CME Group made a key change to its metals contracts.

After peaking at $4,565 per troy ounce Friday, spot gold was down more than 4% at $4,355 in late afternoon trading today. Spot silver, whose rally had outpaced gold in recent days, fell nearly 9% Monday to just above $73 an ounce, after hitting a high above $84 on Sunday. Prices for platinum and palladium also fell dramatically on Monday.

CME Group raised its margin requirements for precious metals contracts, a change that took effect Monday. Higher margin requirements force traders to add money to accounts that insure against default when accepting physical delivery on a futures contract.

Exchange operators ordinarily raise margin requirements after strong price rallies. Essentially, it raises the minimum amount traders must give brokers in order to bet on commodity prices.

Gold prices have hit a series of record highs this year as investors have turned to precious metals as stores of value amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Even with Monday's steep declines, precious metals have significantly outperformed major stock indexes and cryptocurrencies in 2025.

Last week's price rally in precious metals offered a microcosm of the virtually unabated price run-up they've experienced in 2025. Even after Monday's slide, gold prices remain 65% higher year-to-date, while silver is up about 150%. Gold and silver are on pace for their highest annual returns since 1979.

After last week's rally, some investors had anticipated cashing in on profits, said Louis Navellier, chief investment officer of Navallier & Associates. But most expected that to occur after the first of the year to postpone 2025 tax liabilities. The CME Group's decision likely hastened profit-taking.

Gold and other precious metals have surged for a variety of reasons this year. Geopolitical concerns and inflation worries fed by tariffs have caused investors to seek metals as a store of value. The Federal Reserve's decision to cut interest rates also made metals more attractive versus competing yield-producing assets.

In addition, concerns about rising global debt and the falling U.S. dollar contributed to the shift toward gold and other metals, particularly by global central banks. In silver, a supply squeeze and strong industrial demand exacerbated the rally late in the year.

News of the day for Dec. 29, 2025

Stock futures are ticking lower at the start of another holiday-shortened trading week after major indexes gained ground last week; gold and silver prices stepped back from recent record-high levels; shares of DigitalBridge are soaring after a report that the data center investment firm is in talks to be acquired by Japan’s SoftBank; oil prices are rising as investors weigh geopolitical tensions; and pending home sales data are due this morning. Here's what investors need to know today.

Stock futures are pointing to a slightly lower open this morning after each of the major indexes gained more than 1% last week. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the tech-focused Nasdaq were recently down 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped 0.1%. Bitcoin was at $87,300, down from an overnight high of just above $90,000. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which can influence a range of consumer loans, was at 4.12% recently, after closing last week at 4.13%. Stock and bond markets will be closed for the New Year’s Day holiday on Thursday.

Gold and silver prices are losing ground today after hitting all-time highs last week. Gold futures were down 1.7% at $4,475 an ounce recently, after rising as high as $4,585 on Friday. Silver futures dropped more than 3% today to $74.65 an ounce. Precious metals have hit a series of record highs this year as investors have turned to safe-haven assets to hedge against inflation, geopolitical turmoil and currency weakness.

Shares of DigitalBridge (DBRG) are soaring on a report that the data center investment firm is in talks to be acquired by Japanese tech firm SoftBank. Bloomberg reported that SoftBank could announce the deal as early as today. The deal would be the latest instance of SoftBank investing in the infrastructure used to power artificial intelligence, after it linked up with Oracle (ORCL) and OpenAI earlier this year as part of the $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure initiative. Shares of DigitalBridge, which manages a portfolio of digital infrastructure businesses, were up about 30% in recent premarket trading. Coming into Monday's session, the stock had gained 23% so far this year.

Oil prices are rising as geopolitical tensions drive investor concerns over supply levels of the commodity. West Texas Intermediate (WTI)  futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, were up 2.5% at $58.15 per barrel in recent trading. The jump in oil prices comes as a meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymr Zelenskyy failed to lead to agreement on a peace plan for the war in Ukraine. Political tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have also helped push oil prices higher.

A report on November pending home sales, set for release today at 10 a.m. ET today, is among the few economic data releases scheduled during the holiday-shortened week. The housing market has been stagnant due to high home prices and elevated mortgage rates.  Tomorrow’s release of the minutes for the December meeting of the Federal Reserve will give market watchers insight into how central bankers view the economy as they contemplate additional interest rate cuts. Home pricing data and weekly jobless claims are also on tap this week.

• Analysts expect the U.S. dollar to weaken modestly in 2026 as Fed rate cuts and resilient global growth reduce demand for dollar assets.
• Despite the recent slide, the dollar remains the world’s dominant currency, with little evidence of true de-dollarization.

The U.S. dollar could see a bit more weakness in 2026, analysts say, continuing its decline after President Donald Trump’s tariff plans in April surprised markets.

The dollar weakened as much as 10% this year against a basket of foreign currencies, though it’s retraced some of those losses recently and is now down 7% year-to-date.

The drop was far from the doomsday “de-dollarization” scenarios that some floated after April—global trade and markets still rely on the U.S. dollar. It did, however, mark an end to the dollar’s steady gains over the last decade, when global investors swept into U.S. stocks and bonds and used dollars to buy them.

“We project further dollar weakness but at a slower pace than 2025, leaving the trade-weighted dollar 10% weaker by end-26,” George Saravelos, global head of FX research at Deutsche Bank. “If these forecasts materialize, they will confirm that this decade's unusually long dollar bull cycle is over.”

A weaker dollar affects travel costs, import prices, and investment returns for U.S. households and investors. Even modest declines can reshape portfolios, inflation pressures, and global trade dynamics.

There are reasons for the dollar to strengthen—after all, global investors need dollars if they want to buy U.S. tech stocks. But the world is “so heavily exposed to U.S. equities that sustaining elevated inflows will be challenging,” Saravelos wrote.

That lopsidedness could help drive investors elsewhere in the world, TD Securities analyst Jayati Bharadwaj wrote in a note to clients.

“For the USD to benefit from a strong U.S. outlook, you need the outlook for the rest of the world to materially deteriorate,” Bharadwaj wrote, adding that instead the global economy “has been resilient and held up much better than feared under tariff uncertainty.”

The weaker dollar means U.S. travelers’ money may not go as far abroad, while U.S. companies pay more to import goods. 

However, a weaker dollar is better news for U.S. exporters because their goods become cheaper abroad—in line with Trump’s priority to reduce U.S. trade deficits. Trump ultimately “needs a weaker USD to sustainably shrink the trade deficit,” Bharadwaj wrote.

The Fed’s ongoing interest rate cuts aren’t helping the dollar, since U.S. debt becomes a little less attractive when it pays less interest. The dollar may regain its luster once the Fed pauses on rate cuts, Wells Fargo Chief Economist Tom Porcelli wrote recently.

“We expect the greenback to broadly strengthen in the back half of next year as the Fed ends its easing cycle and de-dollarization talk diminishes,” he wrote.

This year’s narrative of de-dollarization mostly ended up being talk, analysts say, seeing little sign of a shift away from the U.S. dollar’s dominance in finance since the end of World War II.

“The structural foundation of dollar dominance remains intact, supported by deep and liquid markets, the global reach of U.S. financial institutions, and an unmatched supply of safe assets,” Marcello Estevão, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance, wrote in a research note.

Safer assets such as highly rated debt—which the U.S. government issues plenty of—are critical vehicles for global pension funds or insurance companies to park cash and earn some interest. There is little sign that demand is waning among private foreign investors for U.S. Treasury bonds, Estevão noted. The dollar also remains the dominant currency in global payments.

The recent rally in gold prices has stoked some talk of de-dollarization, since global central banks are increasingly holding more gold in their coffers. Still, Estevão wrote, the rise in gold prices appears to have “mechanically lifted” how large a portion gold makes up in central banks’ portfolios, chipping away at the share of their dollar assets.

The recent “gold accumulation has not come at the expense of dollar holdings” at most central banks, even if countries like China or Russia have diversified away from it, Estevão said.

There are plenty of myths surrounding the supposed de-dollarization, TD Securities’ Bharadwaj wrote. Still, she wrote, some investors may remain cautious that the dollar will weaken further, eroding the value of any U.S. dollar assets in their portfolios.

The dollar’s longstanding status as a safe haven is “strained” due to less predictable U.S. policymaking, she wrote.

“The U.S. is no longer shielded from exogenous global macro shocks but is instead the emanating source of them,” Bharadwaj wrote, flagging ongoing tariff uncertainty and Trump’s squabbles with the Fed as two risks.

Even if investors don’t react negatively, they still have a strong incentive to shield themselves against dollar weakness, Bharadwaj wrote. That’s because the Fed’s rate cuts are making it cheaper for investors to buy instruments that hedge against dollar risks, she noted.

While European investors have already done a significant amount of hedging, there's room for funds in other regions to do so, Deutsche Bank’s Saravelos wrote. It's a question that analysts are watching closely to see if more dollar weakness is ahead.

“Our conversations suggest that the hedging decisions are still in flux,” Saravelos wrote, adding that “the outlook for hedging flows errs dollar bearish.”

• "Coin roll hunters" are having a hard time getting rolls of pennies to search through now that the Mint is no longer making the coin.
• Many coin collectors hope the public discourse on the penny will inspire more people to take up the hobby.

Ryan Quinlan belongs to five banks, but he can’t he get withdrawals in the denomination he wants? Why? Because, he says, he wants pennies by the thousands.

For years, Quinlan has picked up boxes—usually containing 50 rolls, or 2,500 pennies—for “coin roll hunting,” in which he roots for rare finds like coins with wheat embossings on the back or that look like they were stamped twice. Unfortunately, it's been harder to source sealed cylinders packed with pennies since the government stopped minting them in November. 

“I had a good system down," said Quinlan, a 28-year-old software engineer currently living in North Carolina. “Despite that, I’m just not able to get pennies. It is a little sad, but I guess it’s kind of an inevitability.”

Many have lost sight of the penny’s utility in recent years. Americans have generally decided it isn’t worth sorting, carrying or using them, and the government agreed, saying it’s inefficient to spend nearly $3.70 producing each coin with some 300 billion already in circulation. Still, the penny has cultural and historical pull. Hundreds attended a memorial for the coin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month, according to The Washington Post.

But regard for the penny may be greatest among collectors. Coin roll aficionados are saddened that their penny-hunting days appear numbered, and the broader coin community is reflecting on the life cycle of a 232-year-old artifact. Both groups hope the recent public discourse on the coin will inspire a new crowd to start collecting. 

It may be unlikely that 2025 pennies will skyrocket in value. But if you come upon one in good condition, it wouldn't hurt to save it. The effort can't cost you more than one cent: said Charles Morgan, manager of numismatic research and programs at the Professional Coin Grading Service.

This could be a “point of enthusiasm and interest, where people come into the market that maybe weren’t collecting coins before,” said Charles Morgan, manager of numismatic research and programs at the Professional Coin Grading Service, which authenticates and grades coins. 

“They want to hold on to these objects before they disappear,” Morgan said. “At some point, although we can’t really imagine it now, pennies will disappear.”

There's already a sense that 2025 pennies, the last of their kind, may be hard to come by. Fifty-cent rolls are selling on Ebay for $10 to $20. Morgan doesn’t think buyers are getting gouged, but he doesn’t expect their value to rise exponentially in our lifetime either: Circulating coins tend to get dinged or scuffed, he said, though those in sealed rolls or otherwise carefully saved may appreciate.

Nostalgia may make the last edition of collectibles particularly valuable. Some people paid $550 for $25 worth of sealed 2025 pennies, eBay selling data shows. Collectors spent $16.8 million at an auction where 2025 pennies—including a 24 karat gold coin—were sold in packs of three. The final set, along with the dies used to stamp the pennies, sold for $800,000, according to Stack's Bowers, which ran the auction. (The Mint has said it will continue making “proof strike” pennies designed for collecting.)

Amid the hype, people are taking another look at their pocket change, said Jonathan Aminov, who owns Big Apple Coins, a rare coin shop in Manhattan. He informs callers that pennies dug up from jars and couch cushions are unlikely to be of note "almost on a daily basis," he told Investopedia.

Aminov’s store generally buys 1800s-era coins and rarely acquires modern "Lincoln" cents, and he doesn't expect his store, or other professional collectors, to change their approach.

For the most part, accumulated pennies won’t be worth more than their face value, said Morgan. But stashes started decades ago, say, by seniors may improve your chances of finding something worth more than its face value, he said. Those hunting, he said, can use The Official Red Book: A Guidebook of United States Coins and PCGS’ CoinFacts to identify whether something is rare or valuable.

Tens of thousands have subscribed to Quinlan's Youtube channel, "Quin's Coins." About 99% of the circulated coins Quinlan goes through are unremarkable, but he says sifting through them feels like a treasure hunt, and he plans to slowly go through the 2,500-penny boxes—about a dozen—he has left.

“Once those are gone, that’s probably going to be it for the pennies,” he said. “I’ll just try to move on to other denominations."

• Mortgage rates could stay high in 2026 even if the Fed cuts interest rates, limiting relief for homebuyers and businesses.
• Long-term bond yields are being driven more by inflation expectations and investor confidence than by the Fed’s short-term rate decisions.

The big question facing bond markets in 2026—and thus anyone hoping to buy a home—is whether long-term rates will stay sluggishly high even as the Federal Reserve cuts rates. 

It’s a scenario that could diminish the impact of the Fed’s rate cuts, as homebuyers hold off amid elevated mortgage rates and businesses opt against longer-term investments. It is, however, one that several analysts think may occur next year.

Those analysts foresee interest rate charts “steepening,” with long-term rates remaining high while short-term rates decline. That can happen when investors anticipate more inflation in the future, which prompts them to demand higher interest rates so that rising prices don’t erode their returns.

“The overall direction of the market is one of a consistent, grinding bull steepening trend,” wrote Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. rates strategy at BMO Capital Markets, while acknowledging 2026 is a “year with more questions than answers.”

If long-term rates stay high, Fed rate cuts may not translate into cheaper mortgages or easier financing. For homebuyers and businesses, that could mean borrowing costs remain stubbornly expensive well into 2026.

It wouldn’t be the first time that long-term rates stay elevated or even rise despite the Fed cutting its influential interest rate. That’s more or less what’s happened since the Fed started its most recent rate cuts in September 2024. 

The Fed has now cut short-term rates by 175 basis points since then, with the latest cut occurring in December. Even so, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, a key benchmark used in mortgage rates, has risen from around 3.70% in September 2024 to around 4.15% for much of December 2025

It is the Fed’s “easing paradox,” Bob Elliott, CEO of Unlimited Funds, wrote in a commentary. The central bank can choose to cut short-term rates, but the bond market “is not complying” and driving long-term rates higher, Elliott wrote. 

“It should challenge the view of the Fed as masters of the universe when it comes to the ability to pump markets,” Elliott wrote. “Even an incremental easing step is backfiring.”

It may be because some investors are viewing the Fed as “too proactive given conditions,” he wrote, with an economy that may not need many more rate cuts.

The 10-year yield was around 4.15% for much of December and could rise more next year, wrote Padhraic Garvey, an economist at the Dutch bank ING. He sees the 10-year yield potentially hitting 4.5% by mid-year before drifting back down to around 4.25%.

“We can see upside to the 10-year yield dominating through the first half of 2026, as we see more tariff impact on prices than we’ve seen so far,” Garvey said, though he noted that inflation likely “gets tamed” later in 2026 by weaker housing markets.

That scenario assumes the Fed cuts interest rates twice next year, driving the federal funds rate to a target range of 3% to 3.25%. 

However, he also plotted out two alternative scenarios where the Fed cuts rates to around 2%—one with justification and the other without. Long-term yields would react quite differently in either case.

The first would require recession-like conditions, giving the Fed ample reason to cut rates further to stimulate the economy. Bond markets would accept those actions and the 10-year yield could go down to 3%, over a whole percentage point from today’s levels.

The other scenario is cutting without reason, such as President Donald Trump’s selection of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s replacement causing the Fed to swing “super dovish.” Under that scenario, the Fed would cut rates “far in excess of what's required in an attempt to juice the economy in good time for the midterm elections.”

“While Treasuries love rate cuts, they won't like them much given this cocktail,” Garvey wrote, citing the rising risk of an inflation resurgence and markets protesting the Fed’s tarnished credibility.

“We prefer our base view, as it’s the most likely,” he wrote. “It’s also, by definition, more likely than either of these alternative parallel universes, both of which are quite troubling.”

However your trades performed in 2025, you can restart the clock in just a few days.

Jobless claims, Fed meeting minutes and pending home sales data will highlight another holiday-shortened week as traders get a day off for the New Year’s Day holiday on Thursday. While bond markets will close early at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, stock markets are operating a normal schedule on New Year’s Eve.

The first session of 2026 is on Friday, following a year where stocks turned around an April swoon to set major indexes on a path to close higher by double digits. History shows that strong trading in December and January can set the tone for investors; analysts expect another roller-coaster year for stocks is in store. 

Read on for our calendar of key events this week—and one more thing.

There are no significant corporate earnings on tap for this week, though investors may watch for the release of a few economic indicators and other reports.

On Tuesday, the minutes for the December meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will provide insight into how Fed members view the trajectory of the economy ahead of its next meeting in late January. The weekly jobless claims report, due Wednesday, will shine a light on the labor market as the Fed keeps a close eye on jobs as it considers its next move on interest rates. The U.S. economy likely lost an average of 20,000 jobs per month between April and September.

Pending home sales for November is due Monday, giving a look at future sales levels in a housing market struggling with affordability. But the S&P Case-Shiller home price index, due the following day, arrives as home price growth slows as buyers show signs of reaching their limits.

Quick Links: Recap Last Week’s Trading | Latest Markets News

Monday, Dec. 29

• Pending home sales (November)

Tuesday, Dec. 30

• S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (October)
• Chicago Business Barometer (December)
• December FOMC meeting minutes

Wednesday, Dec. 31

• Initial jobless claims (Week ending Dec. 27)
• U.S. bond markets close at 2 p.m. ET

Thursday, Jan. 1

• New Year’s Day holiday

Friday, Jan. 2

• None scheduled

Twenty-two states will raise their minimum wage this year, with 19 of them set to make the change on New Year’s Day. Investopedia’s Sabrina Karl has more on where the minimum wage is going up this year—and where it isn’t.

Ring out, wild bells—especially those that mark the opening and closing of markets.

The final days of 2025 are upon us, and with them come the last set of trading holidays now that the Christmas break is in the rear-view mirror.

Stock traders have a full day on New Year's Eve, but bond trading ends at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 31. Both stock and bond markets are closed on Jan. 1, 2026, for New Year's Day.

Those will be the last adjustments to regular trading before Monday, Jan. 19, when both stock and bond markets will be closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

• Reports on Friday suggested that an activist investor has taken a stake in beaten-down retailer Target.
• Precise details about the stake couldn't be immediately determined, but investors nonetheless got on board, pulling the company's shares higher Friday.

We might not know how Target's sales were this Christmas yet, but its shares are getting a holiday-week bump.

Shares of the retailer rose Friday—recently up more than 2%, though a bit off earlier highs, they were among the S&P 500's top gainers in Friday's session—after the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the details, that hedge fund and activist investor Toms Capital Investment Management had taken a stake in the retailer.

Generally speaking, activist investors look for shares of companies that have been pulled lower in hopes their ideas—or, sometimes, simply their presence—can induce those companies to make changes they deem likely to help turn things around. Target, a well-known company that has had a rough 2025, isn't a surprising candidate.

The story did not mention the size of the reported stake. Toms did not respond to Investopedia's request for comment in time for publication.

Target (TGT) in a statement said it maintains "a regular dialogue with the investment community."

"Target's top priority is getting back to growth, and our strategy to do so is rooted in three strategic priorities: leading with merchandising authority, providing a consistently elevated shopping experience and leveraging technology," the company's statement said. "We are confident the execution of this plan will drive the business forward and deliver sustained, long-term value for shareholders.”

It's been a rough year for shares of Target, which have lost more than a quarter of their value in 2025. The company named a new CEO this summer, but he isn't scheduled to take over until February, and in the meantime some of the issues that led to the decision—the company expects sales to fall year-over-year in the fourth quarter after sliding in the third—persist.

Wall Street appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach with the shares. Visible Alpha's mean price target for the stock, a bit above $94, is below its previous close.

This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect market movements and incorporate Target's statement.

• Coupang announced it has resolved a cyberattack and that no customers' personal information was taken.
• The South Korean e-commerce firm said the hack only revealed building entrance codes and that a former employee confessed.

An e-commerce stock is rising Friday after the company said a cyberattack doesn't appear to have left customer payment information at risk.

Shares of Coupang (CPNG) were recently up about 9% after the company offered an update about the cyberattack on its South Korean subsidiary, which exposed the personal data of some 33 million customers.

The fallout from a cyberattack can be highly problematic, for financial and other reasons, for the companies that are victims. Investors have determined that a recent attack on Coupang wasn't as bad as might have been feared, and the stock rose Friday after the company's update.

Coupang said “the perpetrator has been identified, and that all devices used in the data leak have been retrieved.” It added that its investigation revealed the hacker “retained limited user data from only 3,000 accounts and subsequently deleted the user data.”

The company's shares tumbled on Dec. 1. when the breach was first revealed, later falling to their lowest levels since April. With today’s gains, the shares are up about 13% year-to-date.

Coupang said all that was taken was “2,609 building entrance codes,” and that no “payment data, log-in data or individual customs numbers” were collected.  In addition, Coupang said none of the information was passed on to others.

The company said it determined that the hacker was a former employee who confessed.

• Nvidia earlier this week announced a partnership agreement with inference chipmaker Groq.
• The partnership will have Grog's founder and CEO Jonathan Ross and others from the company joining Nvidia, which is reportedly paying $20 billion for some Groq assets.

The trading year is almost over—but Nvidia still has some news to make.

The chip giant earlier this week struck a deal with inference chipmaker Groq, a non-exclusive licensing pact that according to the announcement leaves the latter company independent—but also has founder and CEO Jonathan Ross, President Sunny Madra and other members of the company joining Nvidia (NVDA) “to help advance and scale the licensed technology.”

Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, has been a powerful stock largely on the back of powerful growth in its business. This week's news of a deal that includes a licensing partnership, the acquisition of some key executives and, reportedly, a multibillion-dollar investment is another signal of optimism about its business.

The news helped lift Nvidia's shares on Friday, with the stock—up some 40% in 2025 so far—more than 1.5% higher in morning trading. (Read Investopedia's live coverage of today's trading here.)

Investors may be cheered in part by reports that Nvidia is also acquiring some of Groq's assets, with CNBC reporting a $20 billion price tag for them—it's considered Nvidia's biggest-ever acquisition—in an indication of sustained opportunity for dealmaking in the AI sector to close out the year. (Groq referred Investopedia to its statement and to Nvidia; Nvidia in an email said "We haven’t acquired Groq.")

Groq CFO Simon Edwards is set to take over as CEO. The company in September said it raised $750 million at a valuation of $6.9 billion. "Inference is defining this era of AI, and we’re building the American infrastructure that delivers it with high speed and low cost," Ross said at the time.

Wall Street analysts continue to see room for Nvidia's shares to keep rising. The mean price target as tracked by Visible Alpha is $254, well above recently prices around $191. The company remains the world's most-valuable, with a market capitalization above $4.6 billion.

This article has been updated since it was first published to reflect comments from Groq and Nvidia and to note recent market action.