By Katy Barnato
The year's run-up in precious metals broke new ground on Friday, while U.S. stocks held close to all-time highs.
Most-active silver futures were up 4.5% at around $75 a troy ounce, after earlier hitting a new intraday record. A runaway rally in silver, which has more than doubled in price this year, has swept up amateur investors. Equivalent contracts for gold futures also hit records, rising as high as $4,562 a troy ounce.
Escalating geopolitical tensions likely bolstered gold, which is viewed as a haven asset. The U.S. staged a Christmas Day strike on Islamic State in Nigeria, and has blockaded sanctioned oil tankers entering and exiting Venezuelan waters. WTI crude futures, the U.S. oil benchmark, are up around 3% so far this week, on pace for their best weekly gains in two months.
U.S. stock indexes crept lower in thin trading. The major gauges rose for a fifth straight session on Christmas Eve, with both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials closing at records. Typically, stocks rise in the period spanning the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the next, in what is sometimes termed a Santa Claus Rally.
On Friday, miners such as Southern Copper and Freeport-McMoRan rose, bolstered by higher metal prices. Nvidia stock gained 1.5% after the chip maker late Wednesday unveiled a licensing deal with Groq, a semiconductor startup.
Shares of Coupang, South Korea's e-commerce rival to Amazon, jumped 10% after skidding in recent weeks. The customer information leaked in a massive cybersecurity breach has been deleted by the suspect, according to media reports.
Biohaven's stock dropped 4% after the biopharmaceutical company said an antidepressant drug candidate missed its main goal in a study.
Numerous stock markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific remained closed on Friday, including in the U.K. and Hong Kong.
The Japanese yen slipped against the dollar after data showed Tokyo consumer prices rose more slowly than expected in December, but held above the Bank of Japan's target. Japan's cabinet approved a record-high initial budget for the next fiscal year.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 26, 2025 10:49 ET (15:49 GMT)
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