This content was published on <\/p>\n
December 26, 2025 – 01:31\n<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) \u2014 Asian stocks edged higher in thin trade Friday as Japanese and South Korean shares gained while many regional markets remained shut for holidays. Silver climbed to a record and gold neared its all-time high.<\/p>\n
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index extended its year-end rally, rising for a sixth consecutive day. US shares closed at a record high on Wednesday and most markets in Asia, the US and Europe were closed Thursday for Christmas Day.<\/p>\n
Equity bulls are pinning their optimism on what\u2019s known as the \u201cSanta Claus Rally\u201d to push stocks to fresh records even as exuberance over artificial intelligence and the Federal Reserve\u2019s interest-rate path are being questioned. The rally is traditionally seen as taking place on the final five trading sessions of a year and the first two of the new one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs equity markets enter the fourth year of a bull market, our underlying market call remains constructive,\u201d Scott Chronert, head of US equities strategy at Citigroup Inc. wrote in a note this week. \u201cThe current fundamental backdrop clearly has the opportunity for an ongoing AI-related tailwind to large-cap growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The S&P 500 Index gained for a fifth day Wednesday in a shortened session ahead of the Christmas holiday. The VIX index of the S&P 500\u2019s expected volatility fell to the lowest this year.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, the main moves were among precious metals. Silver gained for a fifth day and gold climbed as much as 0.6% as geopolitical tensions persisted.<\/p>\n
Spot silver advanced as much as 2.2% to $73.4393 an ounce. The white metal has risen about 150% this year in a rally that has accelerated since a historic short squeeze in October.<\/p>\n
Gold for immediate delivery edged toward its record above $4,525 an ounce that was hit on Wednesday. Frictions in Venezuela, where the US has blockaded oil tankers, have added to the precious metal\u2019s haven appeal.<\/p>\n
A key move on Thursday was China\u2019s yuan strengthening past the psychological milestone of 7 per dollar in offshore trading for the first time since September 2024. Gains have been driven by speculation the central bank will allow gradual currency appreciation to boost market confidence. The move came after the People\u2019s Bank of China strengthened its daily reference rate to the strongest level since September 2024.<\/p>\n
Some of the main moves in markets:<\/p>\n
Stocks<\/p>\n
S&P 500 futures were little changed as of 9:29 a.m. Tokyo time Japan\u2019s Topix rose 0.3% Currencies<\/p>\n
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1790 The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 156.17 per dollar The offshore yuan was unchanged at 7.0017 per dollar Cryptocurrencies<\/p>\n
Bitcoin fell 0.9% to $87,011.39 Ether fell 1.5% to $2,900.49 Bonds<\/p>\n
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.14% Japan\u2019s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 2.035% Commodities<\/p>\n
West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.3% to $58.50 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.6% to $4,506.73 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This content was published on December 26, 2025 – 01:31 (Bloomberg) \u2014 Asian stocks edged higher in thin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6144,42,43,6145,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-204139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-business-general","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-ticker","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}