Stock Market Live December 26: S&P 500 (SPY) up 19% on the Year So Far

As we near the end of 2025, futures are mixed with many out for the holidays.

The S&P 500 is down half a point. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is up fractionally. The Dow Jones is down about 44, with the Nasdaq up about 15 points.

“2025 is coming to an end with a few more positives than negatives this year,” wrote Mark Newton, head of technical strategy at Fundstrat, as quoted by CNBC. “While the common narrative revolves around an ‘AI Bubble’ and tariff fears, along with volatility possibly surrounding another government shutdown and/or tariffs and inflation, U.S. stocks have largely ignored all of these fears thus far, heading into late 2025.”

Since the year began, the S&P 500 gained 19%. The Dow Jones gained 16%, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained about 24% thanks to the AI boom, despite overblown AI bubble fears.

The Dogs of the Dow Had Another Good Year 

Every year, one of the best strategies is the Dogs of the Dow. You simply buy a basket of underperformers on the Dow that pay dividends, and sell by the end of the year.

For 2025, here’s how the Dogs are doing with just days to go.

• Verizon (VZ), which yields 6.85%, started the year at around $38. It’s. now up to $40.
• Chevron (CVX), which yields 4.54%, ran from about $142 to $150.50.
• Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which yields 2.5%, ran from $142 to $207.78.
• Amgen (AMGN), which yields 3.02%, ran from about $258 to $334.
• Merck (MRK), which yields 3.19%, ran from about $98 to $106.45.
• Coca-Cola (KO), which yields 2.91%, jumped from $61 to $70.11 so far.
• IBM (IBM), which yields 2.21%, ran from about $215 to a $304.56.
• Cisco (CSCO), which yields 2.1%, ran from about $58 to $78.
• McDonald’s (MCD), which yields 2.37%, ran from about $293 to $313 so far.
• Procter & Gamble (PG), which yields 2.93%, fell from about $264 to $144.50.

Without factoring in yield, the Dogs are up 14.8% on the year so far.

While that’s slightly below the Dow’s year to date returns of 16%, the appreciation and yield still provided respectable returns so far.

Goldman Likes These “Fallen Angels” Heading into 2026 

Not every stock will have a year worth writing home about.

But of the down, but not out, stocks to keep an eye on in the new year, Goldman Sachs likes these “fallen angel” stocks. Making the list is Amazon, which fell from a high of about $260 to a low of about $220 a share in recent months. Other fallen angel stocks that Goldman Sachs likes include DoorDash, Mastercard, Roblox, and Visa.

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