When Santa skips Wall Street: How tech’s wobble sets up 2026
The final week of the year was meant to be simple: light volumes, a friendly “Santa rally”, and a gentle glide into 2026. Instead, Wall Street opened the last stretch of 2025 with a stumble, as traders reached for the “sell” button on the very tech stocks that had carried the market all year. The Dow Jones slipped about 0.5% to roughly 48,462, the S&P 500 eased 0.35% to just under 6,906, and the Nasdaq fell about 0.5%, dragged lower by heavyweight technology and AI names.
Nvidia, Palantir, and Tesla all lost ground, a sharp contrast to last week when their surging prices helped push the S&P 500 to fresh record highs. Precious metals, which had briefly stolen the spotlight, also reversed, with silver dropping after breaking above 80 dollars an ounce and gold retreating from back‑to‑back record highs. It felt less like a blow‑off top and more like a room full of investors quietly agreeing it was time to lock in some profits.
Why this tech sell‑off feels more like a pause
Look past the red numbers and the story changes. Even after Monday’s slip, the S&P 500 is still up more than 17% this year, the Dow more than 14%, and the tech‑heavy Nasdaq over 21–22%. For a year that included tariff shocks, a brief Nasdaq bear market, and a historic metals spike, those are strong returns.
That is why many professionals see the current weakness less as the end of an era and more as a reset. Hank Smith, head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, put it bluntly: “This is not the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity.” He argues that most top tech names, excluding Tesla, “do not have challenging valuations given their growth rate, the moat around their business and their financial strength, which is unparalleled.” In other words, the narrative has shifted from “tech bubble” to “tech breather”.
Even on the macro side, the backdrop is more “mid‑cycle wobble” than “end‑of‑cycle crash”. Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equities strategist at Goldman Sachs, recently noted that with expectations for continued global economic growth and further Federal Reserve easing, “it would be unusual to see a significant equity setback or bear market without a recession.” For now, recession signals remain muted, even if the mood feels cautious.
What this end‑of‑year wobble means for 2026
In a thinner holiday market, every trade matters more. Volumes are light, which means moves can look larger than they really are, and the failed Santa rally is amplifying every headline. Energy shares are quietly gaining as oil ticks higher, bank stocks are giving back part of a strong year, and precious‑metal miners are nursing losses after silver’s spectacular reversal. It is classic year‑end rotation: money flowing out of the winners, testing the weak hands, and forcing investors to decide what they truly want to hold into the new year.
For long‑term investors, the numbers tell a calmer story than the screens. All three major indices are still on track to finish 2025 with double‑digit gains, even after this late‑December setback. With the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes and fresh US data on the way, the coming days will likely shape expectations for how quickly rates might fall in 2026, and how much further this bull market can run.
So if it feels like Santa skipped Wall Street this week, it may just be because the rally came early. The market has already unwrapped most of its gifts in 2025; what investors are doing now is deciding which ones to keep.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or brokerage companies, and not of Winvesta. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
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The final week of the year was meant to be simple: light volumes, a friendly “Santa rally”, and a gentle glide into 2026. Instead, Wall Street opened the last stretch of 2025 with a stumble, as traders reached for the “sell” button on the very tech stocks that had carried the market all year. The Dow Jones slipped about 0.5% to roughly 48,462, the S&P 500 eased 0.35% to just under 6,906, and the Nasdaq fell about 0.5%, dragged lower by heavyweight technology and AI names.
Nvidia, Palantir, and Tesla all lost ground, a sharp contrast to last week when their surging prices helped push the S&P 500 to fresh record highs. Precious metals, which had briefly stolen the spotlight, also reversed, with silver dropping after breaking above 80 dollars an ounce and gold retreating from back‑to‑back record highs. It felt less like a blow‑off top and more like a room full of investors quietly agreeing it was time to lock in some profits.
Why this tech sell‑off feels more like a pause
Look past the red numbers and the story changes. Even after Monday’s slip, the S&P 500 is still up more than 17% this year, the Dow more than 14%, and the tech‑heavy Nasdaq over 21–22%. For a year that included tariff shocks, a brief Nasdaq bear market, and a historic metals spike, those are strong returns.
That is why many professionals see the current weakness less as the end of an era and more as a reset. Hank Smith, head of investment strategy at Haverford Trust, put it bluntly: “This is not the beginning of the end of the tech dominance, it’ll turn out to be a buying opportunity.” He argues that most top tech names, excluding Tesla, “do not have challenging valuations given their growth rate, the moat around their business and their financial strength, which is unparalleled.” In other words, the narrative has shifted from “tech bubble” to “tech breather”.
Even on the macro side, the backdrop is more “mid‑cycle wobble” than “end‑of‑cycle crash”. Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equities strategist at Goldman Sachs, recently noted that with expectations for continued global economic growth and further Federal Reserve easing, “it would be unusual to see a significant equity setback or bear market without a recession.” For now, recession signals remain muted, even if the mood feels cautious.
What this end‑of‑year wobble means for 2026
In a thinner holiday market, every trade matters more. Volumes are light, which means moves can look larger than they really are, and the failed Santa rally is amplifying every headline. Energy shares are quietly gaining as oil ticks higher, bank stocks are giving back part of a strong year, and precious‑metal miners are nursing losses after silver’s spectacular reversal. It is classic year‑end rotation: money flowing out of the winners, testing the weak hands, and forcing investors to decide what they truly want to hold into the new year.
For long‑term investors, the numbers tell a calmer story than the screens. All three major indices are still on track to finish 2025 with double‑digit gains, even after this late‑December setback. With the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes and fresh US data on the way, the coming days will likely shape expectations for how quickly rates might fall in 2026, and how much further this bull market can run.
So if it feels like Santa skipped Wall Street this week, it may just be because the rally came early. The market has already unwrapped most of its gifts in 2025; what investors are doing now is deciding which ones to keep.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or brokerage companies, and not of Winvesta. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Ready to earn on every trade?
Invest in 11,000+ US stocks & ETFs