Tuesday’s S&P 500 index futures session delivered relentless chop in a narrow range on the penultimate trading day of 2025, with no sustained directional conviction.

Overnight trading previewed the day’s action: relatively tight, mostly red oscillation. The regular session opened with sellers attempting to test the premarket low. At 9:45 AM ET, December Chicago PMI beat expectations, helping spark a brief bullish rally that flipped the index futures green and pushed toward 6960. The move then reversed sharply, plunging back to the lows.

Bulls found footing just below the initial low at 6940.75, then mounted another modest rally to a new session high of 6961.50. That peak also quickly failed, sending the index futures back into the red while holding support above the day’s bottom. Afternoon action settled into calm, chop just below unchanged. The release of December FOMC minutes barely changed the action either. Late-session selling had the final word, locking in a close near the lows, ending the regular session at 6944.25, down 10.75 handles.

Wednesday brings light macro with last week’s initial jobless claims and seasonal turn-of-the-month / year-end positioning flows.

Among top index components, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) emerged as the biggest gainer. The tech conglomerate rose $7.32 or 1.11% to close at $666.01.

That performance was over one percent better than the cash index’s 0.12% decline.

For the third straight day, the biggest loser was Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA). For the day, the AI/EV company fell $5.40 or 1.17% to close at $454.24.