01/02/2025
LIVE UPDATES
Stock Market Today: Futures Rise to Start New Year
Indexes in Shanghai and Hong Kong sink on first trading day of 2025.
Last Updated:
Jan. 2, 2025 at 6:11 AM EST
Markets are kicking off the new year on a brighter note.
Technology stocks are leading gains in premarket trading, with chip stocks and cryptocurrency-linked names rising. Bitcoin is above $96,000, after ending 2024 on a losing streak.
The sunnier mood contrasts with the final sessions of 2024, when the S&P 500 fell for four straight trading days. That has jeopardized the so-called Santa Claus rally that frequently happens over the holidays.
In recent trading:
U.S. stock futures rose. The tech-focused Nasdaq-100 led the gains, rising more than 0.5%.
The 10-year Treasury yield ticked lower. It settled at 4.577% Tuesday to close out 2024.
Bitcoin traded above $96,000, compared to a late-afternoon level of about $93,400 on Tuesday.
Chinese stock indexes fell, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and the Shanghai Composite both losing more than 2%.
European natural-gas prices hit a 14-month high, as the region looked ahead to colder winter temperatures. In addition, on Wednesday Russia halted natural-gas flows to Europe via Ukraine, following the year-end expiry of a gas-transit deal.
The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 ticked down.
Up ahead:
Initial jobless claims, due at 08:30 a.m. ET, are expected to tick up to 225,000—an increase of 6,000 from a week earlier.
Survey data from S&P Global, due at 9:45, will likely show U.S. manufacturing remained in contraction last month.
Tesla is expected to release sales data. Analysts expect deliveries to fall just shy of the roughly 515,000 units needed for the full-year tally to top 2023’s total.
—By Caitlin McCabe
Live updates on stocks, bonds and markets, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.