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The stock market endured another uneventful session on Tuesday as it continued limping toward the end of 2025. To be fair, this week's uninspiring action comes after the S&P 500 gained more than 17.0% this year, setting a fresh closing record high on Christmas Eve.

Equity futures point to a flat start today with trading volume expected to be on the light side due to a lack of participation from several international markets and tomorrow's New Year's Day closure.

Generally speaking, 2025 was a spectacular year for equities. South Korea's Kospi soared more than 75.0% while Japan's Nikkei jumped 26.2%. Even Germany's DAX was able to gain more than 20.0% with essentially no GDP growth while Spain's IBEX rallied almost 50.0%.

Economic data released overnight showed an unexpected return to expansion in China's Manufacturing (50.1) and Non-Manufacturing (50.2) PMI readings while the U.S. data slate was limited to the weekly jobless claims report.

Initial jobless claims for the week ending December 27 decreased by 16,000 to 199,000 (Briefing.com consensus 226,000) from last week's revised rate of 215,000 (from 214,000), while continuing claims for the week ending December 20 decreased by 47,000 from last week's revised rate of 1.913 million (from 1.923 million) to 1.866 million.

The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims decreased unexpectedly, coming in below 200,000 for just the second time this year. This should be encouraging to a market that has grown more sensitive to signals from the labor market.

Treasuries started the day with modest gains that were reversed in immediate reaction to the strong jobless claims report. The 10-yr yield is up two basis points at 4.15%, inching to a fresh high for the week.

The Treasury market will close one hour early at 14:00 ET today while the New York Stock Exchange will be open for a full session.

Happy New Year!