Wednesday’s S&P 500 index futures session capped 2025 with a classic year-end selloff, though the broader picture remains bullish after a healthy annual advance.

Overnight trading leaned bearish until early morning when buyers reversed the trend. The buying seemed to be helped out by last week’s initial jobless claims coming in roughly 10% below estimates, helping the pre-open rally reach a high of 6951.50. Gains quickly faded, and the regular session opened with sellers in control, driving the index futures into the red. A choppy decline found temporary support above 6900, triggering a modest relief rally into the afternoon that never quite reached unchanged. 

Sellers regrouped in the final two hours, pushing to a session low of 6890.25 just before the close, dipping slightly below the December 19 high. Year-end position adjustments settled the day near that bottom. The regular session ended up closing at 6892.50, down 51.75 handles. For December, the index futures posted a loss of 27 handles or 0.39%. For the quarter, a gain of 94.8 handles or 1.39%. And for the full year, the front-month contract finished up 738 handles or 11.99% (compared to the cash index’s +16% gain).

Friday brings December’s S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI at 9:45 AM ET in a New Year’s Day session, with a potential start of the January-effect.

With no winners among the top index components on the final trading day of 2025, the smallest loser was Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.B). The holding company slipped $1.10 or 0.22% to close at $502.65.

That performance was barely better than the cash index’s 0.74% decline.

The biggest loser was Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO). For the day, the chip designer fell $3.75 or 1.07% to close at $346.10.