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The first days of January are upon us, which means that there will likely be a significant amount of market volatility ahead. Despite the mid-week holiday, there were some important news items investors should pay attention to over the coming days.

On Thursday, the weekly unemployment claims numbers were released, and during the last seven days, there were 211,000 requests for benefits compared to an expected 222,000. This week’s figure was also slightly lower than last week’s 220,000 requests for benefits.

On Friday, the ISM Manufacturing PMI report was released, and it came in at 49.2 percent, which was higher than the projected 48.4 percent. This is the second straight month in which the index has gone up, which is seen as an encouraging sign for the American manufacturing industry. However, it is still below 50 percent, which means that the industry is still in a period of mild contraction.

The GOP avoided what could have been a mild crisis by electing Mike Johnson as House speaker. Without a speaker, it would have been impossible to swear in other elected representatives, which means that it wouldn’t have been possible to confirm the election results. If the issue had lingered past Jan. 20, there would be no president, vice president or speaker eligible to serve in the White House. Instead, the job would have fallen to 91-year-old Chuck Grassley as he was next in line to hold the office.

The S&P 500 opened 2025 by losing 1.04 percent to finish at 5,942 at the end of trading Friday. On Thursday, the market made its low of the week at 5,832 before reversing and making a high of 5,948 on Friday afternoon.

Like the S&P 500, the Dow also started off the new year by dropping .87 percent to close the week at 42,732. On Thursday afternoon, the market made a weekly low of 42,199 after making its high of the week of 42,880 just hours prior.

Finally, the Nasdaq lost 1.43 percent over the last five trading days to finish the first week of the new year at 19,621. On Thursday, the market made its weekly low of 19,130 before reversing and closing at its weekly high.

Internationally, a slew of nations in Europe and Asia released their own manufacturing PMI numbers. Canada, China and Spain were the only nations to have a PMI over 50 percent. Spain also announced better than expected employment change numbers on Friday morning revealing that the nation only shed 25,300 jobs last month compared to an expected 46,500.

This week will be a busy one as the JOLTS Job Openings report, services PMI and nonfarm payroll figures are all released. In addition, the University of Michigan will release preliminary consumer confidence and inflation expectation figures. Internationally, Canada will announce its unemployment and job change figures on Friday while Germany, Australia and Switzerland release their annual inflation numbers.

The final full trading week of 2024 was a muted one as the Christmas holiday led to several days of lower trading activity. However, there were a couple of news announcements that market participants should be aware of heading into the new year.

On Monday, the Consumer Board Consumer Confidence report came in at 104.7, which was lower than the expected 112.9 and lower than last month’s 112.8. Also on Monday, new home sales were up to 664,000 from 627,000 in November. This was slightly lower than the expected 666,000 new home sales.

On Thursday, unemployment claims data came out and revealed that 219,000 people made requests for benefits over the past seven days. This was close to the expected 223,000 claims and was slightly lower than last week’s figure of 219,000.

The last couple weeks of the trading year are often considered ideal for traders as the so-called Santa Claus rally typically occurs during this period. The S&P 500 was up 2.27 percent over the past five trading days to close the week at 5,970. On Monday morning, the index hit its low of the week of 5,912 while it made a high of 6,043 on Thursday afternoon.

As with the S&P 500, the Dow would also finish the week higher, gaining 1.97 percent over the past five days. The weekly low of 42,551 was set on Monday morning while the high of the week occurred on Thursday afternoon when the index hit 43,348. It would close the week at 42,992, which is about 500 points away from the all-time high set earlier in 2024.

Finally, the Nasdaq was up 2.6 percent this week to finish at 19,722. This represented a gain of almost 500 points over the past five trading days with the market making its high of the week of 20,039 on Thursday. On Monday morning, the index made its low of the week when it dipped to 19,558.

There were a few announcements made by international central banks this week. On Monday, Canada announced that its gross domestic product (GDP) had gone up .3 percent in November compared to an expected .2 percent. On Thursday night, Japan announced that its inflation rate was 2.4 percent on an annualized basis, which was slightly lower than the projected 2.5 percent.

Thursday will see the release of unemployment claims for the last seven days while Friday sees the release of the ISM Manufacturing PMI.

Pending home sale data and other housing sales data will be released on Monday and Tuesday, which may cause some volatility prior to the new year. The only noteworthy news releases internationally include Monday’s release of the Spanish annual CPI rate and the Chinese Manufacturing PMI release on Tuesday evening.

The week before the Christmas holiday was full of important news. On Monday, the first important piece of information was released when the Flash Manufacturing PMI and Flash Services PMI came out. It was revealed that the Flash Manufacturing PMI came in at 48.3, which is lower than the expected 49.4 and lower than last month’s 49.7.

This means that manufacturing is still in a period of contraction as it has been for most of 2024. Meanwhile, the Flash Services PMI came in at 58.5, which was more than the projected 55.7 and higher than last month’s 56.7. This implies that the service sector is expanding and is doing so faster than most expected it to, which is also a trend that has existed for most of 2024.

On Tuesday, retail sales data was made public, and the results were mixed depending on what you were expecting. Core retail sales came in at .2 percent for the month, which was lower than the expected .4 percent. Core retail sales includes everything except auto sales, which are considered to be extremely volatile.

Overall retail sales were up .7 percent compared to an expected .6 percent over the past month. Taken together, these data points imply that retail spending may be slumping heading into the start of 2025. This would be interesting considering that the holiday season is the busiest one for retailers and consumers alike.

On Wednesday, the Fed made its final interest rate decision of the year. Although it was an almost foregone conclusion that a cut was coming, there was still plenty of intrigue about where the Fed goes from here. Going into 2025, the Fed Funds rate will stand at 4.5 percent, which is roughly a full percentage point lower than it was to begin 2024.

However, it’s not clear if there will be any rate cuts coming in the first half of 2025. There is some worry that inflation remains sticky and is currently hovering around 2.5 percent, which is higher than the Fed’s target of 2 percent.

On Thursday, the final gross domestic product (GDP) for the third quarter came out and revealed that the economy grew 3.1 percent during those three months. In addition, unemployment benefit claims data came out, and it revealed that 220,000 filed for benefits in the past seven days.

This was compared to an expected 229,000. Finally, on Friday, the core PCE Price Index grew by .1 percent in November compared to an expected .2 percent growth.

The S&P 500 dropped 132 points this week to close at 5,930, which was a loss of 2.19 percent over the past five trading days. On Monday afternoon, the market made its high of the week at 6,079. On Friday morning, the market made its low of 5,853.

The Dow was down 909 points over the past five trading days, which is a loss of 2.09 percent. At Friday’s close, the index stood at 42,840, which is a gain of 15.53 percent compared to this time last year. On Monday morning, the market made its high of the week at 43,900 while it made its weekly low of 42,164 on Friday morning.

Finally, the Nasdaq also lost 2.09 percent to close at 19,572. This week, the index made its high of 20,183 on Tuesday morning and made its low of the week of 19,201 on Friday morning.

This upcoming week is not going to be a busy one for market participants in the United States. As usual, Thursday sees the release of unemployment claims for the past seven days. Otherwise, the Christmas holiday means that Wall Street is going to take an extended break heading into the new year.