US stocks opened higher to kick off the final, shortened trading session before the Christmas holiday. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) edged up about 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) hugged the flatline.

Wall Street is looking to enter its Christmas break rejuvenated, after tech stocks including AI chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) led the march higher on Monday. Markets close at 1 p.m. ET today and are off tomorrow for Christmas Day.

Sizable gains on Friday and Monday have put the indexes back on the path toward their record highs, from which they took a Fed-fueled nosedive last week.

Wall Street is reassessing the path of interest rates next year as it grapples with the reality that the Fed mostly pulled off a so-called soft landing — but couldn’t fully shake the US economy’s inflation problem. According to the CME FedWatch tool, most bets are on two coming holds at the Fed’s January and March meetings, followed by a toss-up in May.

Meanwhile, many eyes continue to be trained on Nvidia, which saw a more than 3.5% gain on Monday. As Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley writes, 2024 was Nvidia’s year, with the stock up some 180%. But 2025 could contain plenty of challenges.

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United Parcel Service (UPS) is just one of Powers Advisory Group Managing Partner Matt Powers’ top picks for 2025, calling the postal carrier and logistics operator as having “defensive characteristics and high valuations” as it looks to get carried by several tailwinds next year. UPS is set to release fourth quarter earnings results on January 30, 2025.

Powers sits down with Wealth host Brad Smith to talk about the other opportunities he is seeing across markets (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) in the new year.

“Broadening it looks like so all 11 major sectors are actually expected to have year over year earnings increases in 2025. And I think we had or will have seven of the 11 this year, which suggests broadening out,” Powers tells Yahoo Finance.

“But the S&P [500] is trading at 21 times forward earnings, while dividend growth equities which is kind of our core focus are at 19 times. So we see again going back to that back-to-basics approach shifting towards value and just underappreciated areas of the market.”

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.

This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

It is a short trading week for Wall Street. The equity markets will close early on Tuesday, December 24, and be closed all day on Wednesday, December 25, for the Christmas holiday. Two stocks in focus today are Honda (HMC) and Nissan (7201.T, NSANY), which officially announced they are in talks to merge. The companies expect the transaction to be completed in 2026. Other trending tickers on Yahoo Finance include Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Tilray Brands (TLRY), and Novo Nordisk (NVO).

Key guests include:
9:10 a.m. ET – Ben Emons, Fed Watch Advisors, Chief Investment Officer/Founder
10:25 a.m. ET – Eric Sheridan, Goldman Sachs Senior U.S. Internet Sector Equity Research Analyst
10:45 a.m. ET – Tony Bancroft, Gabelli Funds Portfolio Manager
11:20 a.m. ET – Steven Wieting, Citi Wealth Chief Investment Strategist and Chief Economist
11:30 a.m. ET – Michael Liersch, Wells Fargo Head of Advice and Planning