All three major US indexes climbed higher in a broad-based rally, with all sector ETFs rising except for consumer staples.

Your Evening Briefing

December 22, 2025

Stocks rise for the third-consecutive session, erasing December losses

All three major US indexes climbed higher in a broad-based rally, with all sector ETFs rising except for consumer staples. The S&P 500 has officially erased December’s losses. Silver and gold hit record highs.

The AI trade got its momentum back, buoyed by positive newsflow in recent days that includes Micron’s earnings and stellar outlook as well as OpenAI’s ever-increasing valuation.

Stocks that moved higher:

  • As the AI ecosystem bounced back, AI related stocks like neoclouds IREN, Cipher Mining, Nebius, and CoreWeave; AI-adjacent energy play Bloom Energy; and infrastructure provider GE Vernova moved higher. Chip stocks Micron, Nvidia, TSMC, and Advanced Micro Devices rose as well.
  • Hertz surged on bullish options activity.
  • Quantum computing stocks D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, and Quantum Computing also surged on bullish options activity.
  • POET Technologies also jumped on elevated call volumes.
  • Opendoor Technologies ticked higher after CEO Kaz Nejatian said AI fueled an expansion of the company’s home-buying footprint across the lower 48 US states.
  • Warner Bros. Discovery rose as Paramount Skydance amended its acquisition offer, which now includes a $40.4 billion personal guarantee from Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison. Netflix also got more of its ducks in a row for its WBD offer on Monday, refinancing part of its $59 billion bridge loan with longer-term and lower-cost debt, though the streaming giant’s stock slightly dipped.
  • Google struck a deal to acquire data center and energy infrastructure firm Intersect for $4.75 billion in cash.
  • Rocket Lab added to Friday’s gain, which came after the company announced a $816 million deal to design and manufacture 18 satellites for the US Space Development Agency on Friday, marking the company’s largest single contract to date.

Stocks that moved lower:

  • Nintendo dipped after news that its popular “Mario Kart World” bundle is seemingly going out of production, per a post on X from GameStop.

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In the absence of official statistics, Bloomberg attempted to tally the number of US deaths linked to crashes in which Tesla’s door functionality may have impeded escape or rescue. The analysis identified “at least 15 deaths in a dozen incidents over the past decade in which occupants or rescuers were unable to open the doors of a Tesla that had crashed and caught fire.” Read more. 

  • Tesla might get to a 1,000 Robotaxis in the Bay Area this year after all
    Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made a lot of year-end promises about its Robotaxi service. One might come true!
  • Nvidia plans to begin shipping H200 chips to China by mid-February, per Reuters
    An early Lunar New Year present for Chinese tech companies.
  • Activists claim to have scraped most of Spotify, planning release
    “Anna’s Archive” activist group claims to have downloaded 86 million music files, and associated metadata. The group says they will release the archive to the public. 
 

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