A trader wears “2026” glasses on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, United States, Wednesday, December 31, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
May this year prove as lucrative as 2025, when S&P500 grew 16.39%, driven primarily by excitement around artificial intelligence, although some pockets of the industry (looking at you, Oracle) weakened significantly at the end of the year.
Given that U.S. markets have only been open for a day so far and most investors and analysts may still be stubbornly drinking their New Year’s champagne (maybe I’m just speaking for myself), here’s a roundup of CNBC’s year-end retrospectives that outline, in broad strokes, what 2025 would look like.
- The prize for the most magnificent of the Magnificent Seven goes to Google-parent Alphabet. Despite shares falling 18% in the first quarter, they finished the year up 65%, with investors viewing the company’s release of Gemini 3 as a potential competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
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The United States attacks Venezuela. The military operation, which overthrew and captured President Nicolas Maduro, was carried out on Saturday in the United States. A US federal indictment accuses Maduro of narcoterrorist conspiracy.
Confusion over the future of Venezuela. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday appeared to walk back President Donald Trump’s assertion that the United States would “rule” oil-rich Venezuela. Analysts believe that energy markets are expected to remain stable in the short term.
US stocks falter on Friday. On the first trading day of 2026, the S&P 500 index rose 0.19%, but gave up earlier gains of up to 0.7%. Stoxx 600 added 0.67%. Great Britain FTSE100 broke the 10,000 level during trading, but closed at 9,951.14.
BYD overtakes Tesla as top seller of electric vehicles. The Chinese automaker announced Thursday that it will sell 2.26 million battery-powered cars in 2025, surpassing Tesla’s 1.64 million. It’s a sign of how Chinese electric vehicle makers are dominating the market.
[PRO] US labor market data sets the tone. The year begins with the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for December, released Friday, which will provide market watchers with the first sign of how the economy is holding up.
And finally…
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is ready to launch with NASA’s IMAP mission, which will study the edge of the solar heliosphere and other scientific payloads, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, September 23, 2025.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
