U.S. stocks appeared to be in for a largely muted start to a final, shortened trading session before the Christmas holidays. Futures tied to the S&P 500 (ES=F) rose 0.1%, while those tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq (NQ=F) rose 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F) reached the zero line.

Wall Street is looking to enter the holiday break stronger after technology stocks, including AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA), led the upward trend on Monday. Markets close at 1:00 p.m. ET today and will be closed tomorrow on Christmas Day.

Significant gains on Friday and Monday put the indexes back on track to record highs from which they nosedived last week due to the Fed.

Wall Street is reassessing the trajectory of interest rates next year as it grapples with the reality that the Fed largely managed a so-called soft landing – but failed to fully solve the U.S. economy’s inflation problem. According to the CME FedWatch tool, most bets are for two rate hikes at the Fed’s meetings in January and March, followed by a change in May.

Meanwhile, many eyes remain on Nvidia, which posted a gain of more than 3.5% on Monday. As Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley writes, 2024 was Nvidia’s year in which shares rose about 180%. But the year 2025 could bring many challenges.

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