U.S. stock futures flat, silver gains again as investors hope to start 2026 on a roll

U. S. Stocks ended Friday down slightly amid light post-Christmas trading, as all three major indexes snapped five-session winning streaks. Precious metals continued their yearlong rally, with silver surging 11% on Friday to another record high and gold up 1.3%.

“Precious metals are starting to trade with a hyperinflationary feel,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, wrote in a weekend note. “Silver is not just reflecting inflation fears or industrial demand or geopolitical anxiety. It is reflecting all of them at once, compressed into a thin, volatile market with very little slack.”
Wall Street is hoping a “Santa Claus rally” helps propel the S&P 500 to a third straight year with a 20% or more annual gain, a long-term rally that has occurred only once before, in 1995. Even if it falls short, the index will likely end up with a gain of more than 10% for a third year in a row, a feat that has only happened four times before.

Despite Friday’s slight decline, the S&P 500 is still up 0.2% since the Santa Claus rally period — which includes the final five trading sessions of the year and the first two of the new year — began Wednesday.

That seasonal momentum appears to be taking control during an otherwise lackluster time for investors. “This is not a market being chased higher by fresh risk. It is a market being levitated by positioning, seasonality and the absence of sellers,” Innes said.
“This is Santa Rally math, not animal spirits. The calendar is doing some of the work,” Innes added. “ For now, the rally is intact, but it is conditional, selective and fragile under the hood.”

The U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed Thursday for the New Year’s holiday. Stock trading will have a full session Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, but bond trading will end early, at 2 p.m. Eastern. MarketWatch