December 2025 in returns

December 2025 closed the year with almost nothing happening at the index level and a good deal happening beneath it. The S&P 500 finished down 0.1%, the Nasdaq 0.5% and the Nikkei up 0.2% — as flat a set of majors as this record contains — while 481 of 870 stocks (55%) closed higher. Crypto stayed heavy after November's rout, Bitcoin off 3.0% and Solana 6.6%, with 44 of 186 coins (24%) green. Two months of poor participation back to back is how an asset class ends a cycle rather than pauses in one.

The month's leaders were an odd, telling mix. Rocket Lab rebounded 65.5% and AST SpaceMobile 29.2%, both recovering part of November's damage, while precious metals came in hard behind — the iShares Silver Trust +25.8%, silver futures +24.2% and Fresnillo +26.6%. That combination, speculative equity and hard money bid in the same month, is what an undecided market looks like. The losers were quieter and more coherent: Lennar -21.7%, Arm -19.4%, Credo -19.0%, Coinbase -17.1% and Marathon Petroleum -16.1% — housing, chips and crypto-adjacent brokerage, three groups with nothing in common except sensitivity to rates. The year ended without resolution, which is precisely why January 2026 and the memory trade would matter so much.