U.S. stocks held near all-time highs on Friday, while the run-up in precious metals broke new ground.<\/p>\n
Front-month silver futures surged 7.7% to around $76.49 a troy ounce, extending a record run that has more than doubled prices this year while sweeping up Wall Street pros and amateur investors alike<\/a>. Gold futures also hit records, rising around 1.1% to $4,529.10 a troy ounce.<\/p>\n One factor boosting precious metals, which are often viewed as a haven for nervous investors: escalating geopolitical tensions. The U.S. staged a Christmas Day strike<\/a> on Islamic State in Nigeria, and has blockaded sanctioned oil tankers entering and exiting Venezuelan waters<\/a>. U.S. crude futures rose 0.4% this week, snapping a two-week streak of declines.<\/p>\n U.S. stock indexes swung between small gains and losses in thin trading before finishing slightly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite all fell less than 0.1%.<\/p>\n Major U.S. indexes notched a fifth straight session of gains on Christmas Eve, with both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials closing at records. Stocks often 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments, said the market\u2019s performance at year-end continues to be driven by the tech giants that have dominated 2025, although sectors such as small-caps and international stocks have finally begun to catch up since early November.<\/p>\n \u201cThe market is starting to feel like it needs to broaden out,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s almost this undeniable pressure for the bull market to broaden out if it\u2019s going to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, the metals rally lifted shares of miners including Southern Copper and Freeport-McMoRan, which rose 0.9% and 2.2% respectively. Materials shares in the S&P 500 gained 0.6%.<\/p>\n Nvidia stock climbed 1% after the chip maker late Wednesday unveiled a licensing deal with Groq, a semiconductor startup<\/a>.<\/p>\n