US stocks rise further into record territory

NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks edged higher early Friday, pushing major indices further into record territory as markets eyed a benign finale to the 2025 trading season.

Trading volumes were expected to be light following Thursday’s Christmas holiday. Stocks often rise in the peak festive period, sometimes yielding a “Santa Claus rally.”

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 percent at 48,758.41.

US stocks steady after S&P 500 record

The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.2 percent to 6,942.78, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.2 percent to 23,653.37.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 ended at records on Wednesday.

“As we get into the end of the year, there are a lot of funds and fund managers who would certainly love to see their biggest holdings close as high as possible, so they have an incentive to see the market go higher,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

Among individual companies, Nvidia gained 1.4 percent as it reached an agreement with chip startup Groq to employ the company’s leadership to scale up the technology.