Stock Market Today: New Records Close Out the First Half of 2025 originally appeared on TheStreet.
Stocks Close the First Half of 2025 at Record
Updated 5:20 p.m. EDT
It's been quite a quarter and quite a half year. A 20% drop followed by a 28% gain off the intraday lows is nice to see, but it also indicates that the market is volatile!
Regardless, a new high is a new high and those lows gave smart investors the chance to pick up their favorite stocks and funds at sale prices. If you didn't act when you had the chance, the market didn't offer a second round of sales.
Today, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each gained about 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrials were higher by 0.63%. Small caps, represented by the Russell 2000, were the laggards, gaining just 0.12%.
Related: Filthy Rich Animal's Question of the Week: Big Dogs vs. Small Dogs in the S&P 500
Small caps are also lagging in 2025. The Russell is down 2.5% for the year, and 12% off the all-time-high set in November of 2024.
What's it mean? Well, the rally this year has been concentrated.
Year-to-Date S&P 500 Constituent PerformanceFinviz Not terribly, but just 287 S&P 500 constituents are up this year. That's around 57%. The losers include Apple, Alphabet (GOOGL) , and Tesla. Amazon is flat.
Bonds also rose today, capping off a first half that was positive for them. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price currently stand at 3.72% for the 5-year, 4.23% for the 10-year, and 4.77% for the 30-year.
Gold is up 25% this year, while Crude Oil is down 10%.
As you already know, the big news for the first half of the year has been tariffs. With the 90-day pause set to end on July 9th, we're expecting deals to be done. And so far, some have!
The other big news is the tax bill, Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill. A version has already passed the House and the Senate is currently working on their version. Either version is set to increase the deficit by trillions of dollars. However, they'll also reduce taxes, which will benefit corporations by increasing profitability and therefore have the potential to add new private sector jobs.
On the economic front, the big question is, will he won't he. He being Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the question is whether he'll lower rates. For now, the fed is taking a wait-and-see attitude. Tariffs could prove inflationary and Powell doesn't want to lower rates as inflation is spiking. Still, the economy has shown signs of weakness and the government is eager for rates to come down so they can refinance debt that is coming due.
Tomorrow starts a new month and a new quarter. But the volatility is likely to remain with us.
Story continuesMarkets are Weakening Heading into the Close
Update 3:00 p.m. EDT
Stocks are paring gains as we head into the last hour of trading for the second quarter of 2025. Although the Dow Jones Industrials, S&P 500, and Russell 2000 remain higher, the Nasdaq Composite is flirting with negative territory.
ThinkOrSwim What's the problem with the Nasdaq? Tesla (TSLA) and Amazon (AMZN) are both down today.
Tesla is down because the Big Beautiful Bill will not be so beautiful for the automaker. Amazon, meanwhile is dropping on the heels of Jeff Bezos' wedding to Lauren Sanchez this weekend in Venice and a his $5.4 billion sale of shares on Friday.
New Records for Stocks
Update 11:55 a.m. EDT
Although stocks are off their highs for the day, there are new records afoot!
On the opening bell, the S&P 500 rang in a new high of 6195. The benchmark large-cap index is currently at 6185, up 0.17% from Friday's close. The tech-heavy Nasdaq is performing similarly, gaining 0.16% to 20305. It, too, is off the new high set at the opening bell.
54% of U.S. stocks are trading higher, including Palantir (PLTR) , Oracle (ORCL) , First Solar (FSLR) , and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) .
Palantir is up 5% following a very weak Friday. Today, the company announced a partnership with Accenture Federal Services that will provide AI offerings to government agencies.
Oracle continues its upward trajectory today, setting a new all-time high on bullish comments by its CEO. Shares are also up 5%.
First Solar is up nearly 9% on news that the tax bill might actually help U.S. makers of solar equipment.
Hewlett-Packard is the big winner in the S&P 500 today, however. It's gaining more than 13% on the announcement that it has resolved a lawsuit by the DOJ that will allow its acquisition of Juniper Networks to take place.
In Washington, Treasury Secretary Bessent suggested that rates are too high currently for it to make sense to issue much in the way of longer-term debt. He believes that it is prudent to wait until rates drop to less than one standard deviation above the long-term level. The tax bill is also making news, with republican senators negotiating specific aspects of the bill.
Stock Market Today
Can we make it six up days in a row? Or maybe we'll just be up all week to make it ten! Nothing surprises me in this market.
Following a relatively quiet weekend, no big news out of the Middle East or Washington, pretty much all major futures that aren't energy-related are heading higher.
ThinkOrSwim There are a few new items to note today.
First, the Canadian government has agreed to halt implementation of a digital-services tax that it was set to impose on U.S. tech companies. The move will allow trade talks to reconvene, with officials saying that they hope to have a deal announced by July 21st.
Related: Go ahead: Start celebrating a big quarter for stocks
Second, will the Fed or won't the Fed raise rates at its July meeting? Over on TheStreet Pro, Stephen "Sarge" Guilfoyle reports that there is growing dissension among Fed governors over rate cuts. While Chair Powell prefers a wait and see approach, other members of the Federal Reserve Board are beginning to suggest that a rate cut is in order.
Sarge also notes that Fed Futures are pricing in an 82% probability of no cut in July, but a 76% likelihood of a cut in September as well as high probabilities for additional cuts that could total 0.75% by year end.
As the tax bill makes its way through the Senate, the prospect of lower taxes plus lower borrowing rates continues to push stocks higher.
Related: Filthy Rich Animal's Question of the Week: Big Dogs vs. Small Dogs in the S&P 500
Stock Market Today: New Records Close Out the First Half of 2025 first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 30, 2025
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
The continued surge in market indices this week, sealing new records to close out the first half of 2035 aligns with a promising outlook for investments as firms adapt and rebound from post-pandemic effects.
