Wall Street muted near the end of a banner year; gold rebounds

By Stephen Culp

NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks edged lower on Tuesday, while gold bounced back and benchmark Treasury yields turned higher on the penultimate trading day of a turbulent year.

All three indexes dipped into negative territory shortly after the opening bell of what is likely to be a light-volume session, a subdued ending to a volatile year.

Having weathered a year of tariff wars, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, and roiling geopolitical strife, all three U.S. indexes, along with their global counterparts, are set to log robust, double-digit gains.

“It’s been a year of corporate resilience,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategy analyst at Baird in Louisville, Kentucky. “For all the anxiety about the state of the labor market consumer spending was still pretty good.”

“People were still mostly working and still mostly spending and that underlies the whole economy,” Mayfield added.

Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s last meeting of the year are expected later in the session, and should provide insight into the disagreement among its members regarding the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates in December and shed light on the path forward of its monetary policy in 2026.

“There might be a little bit more attention paid (to the minutes) given the several dissents in the December meeting,” Mayfield said. “The market is not expecting anything from January, so I think it’ll be more about setting the stage for 2026.” 

On the geopolitical front, efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine war were complicated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that Russia’s negotiating stance will toughen following its accusations that Kyiv attacked Putin’s residential complex in Roshchino.

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 127.26 points, or 0.26%, to 48,334.67, the S&P 500 fell 10.70 points, or 0.15%, to 6,895.04 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 39.80 points, or 0.17%, to 23,434.55.

European shares climbed to all-time highs, with a boost from banking and commodities stocks.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.67 points, or 0.07%, to 1,020.02.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.62%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 14.92 points, or 0.64%.

Emerging market stocks  rose 0.10% to 1,403.11. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed higher by 0.07%, at 722.25, while Japan’s Nikkei fell 187.44 points, or 0.37%, to 50,339.48.

Gold and silver prices rebounded from the prior session’s steep selloff, largely attributable to year-end profit-taking following the precious metals’ bumper year.

“Trees don’t grow to the sky and the move in gold over the last couple of years – basically doubling – requires a longer period of consolidation,” Mayfield said.

Gold remains poised to register its best year of gains since 1979.

Spot gold rose 0.67% to $4,360.79 an ounce, while spot silver rose 5.5% to $76.18 per ounce.

The dollar strengthened ahead of the release of the Fed minutes, but remained on course for its steepest annual drop in eight years.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.24% to 98.25, with the euro down 0.2% at $1.1748.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.32% to 156.54.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin gained 1.63% to $88,665.04. Ethereum rose 1.55% to $2,980.13.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 1.8 basis points to 4.134%, from 4.116% late on Monday.

The 30-year bond yield  rose 1.6 basis points to 4.8202% from 4.804% late on Monday.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 0.2 basis points to 3.463%, from 3.465% late on Monday.

Oil prices steadied amid fading hopes of an imminent Russia-Ukraine peace deal and rising Middle East tensions concerning Yemen.

U.S. crude rose 0.46% to $58.35 a barrel and Brent rose to $62.06 per barrel, up 0.19% on the day.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Stella Qiu, Vidya Ranganathan and Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)