MARKET WRAPS

STOCKS: Stocks fell for the fourth straight session as the "Santa Claus rally" failed to materialize.

TREASURYS: Treasury yields rose, but the two-year and 10-year yields completed their biggest annual decline since 2020.

FOREX: The U.S. dollar was more or less flat against rivals as traders weighed recent economic data.

COMMODITIES: Oil futures fell 0.9% to $57.42 a barrel, down 20% on the year.

HEADLINES

Jobless Claims Decreased Last Week

The number of Americans who filed for new unemployment benefits decreased in the Christmas holiday week, but stayed near a monthslong range, as the U.S. employers hesitate to let go of their workforce.

A total 199,000 new unemployment claims were filed in the week through Dec. 27, a decrease from 215,000 a week earlier, the Labor Department said Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal were forecasting 220,000 claims.

The high-frequency labor data have fluctuated between 200,000 and 250,000 a week, on a seasonally adjusted basis, for most of this year, as employers held on to existing staff in face of a hazy economic outlook.

Saks Prepares for Bankruptcy After Missing Debt Payment

Saks Global is preparing to file for bankruptcy within days after missing an interest payment on the debt it took on to buy Neiman Marcus, people familiar with the matter said.

Saks has struggled financially since taking on the debt burden in 2024, and the luxury retail chain's delays in paying vendors have contributed to weaker merchandise offerings-and sales. Saks is now in talks with its creditors about financing for the bankruptcy process, the people said.

The planned chapter 11 filing is expected to mark the highest-profile department-store bankruptcy since the Covid-19 pandemic. Saks declined to comment.

Warren Buffett Stayed True to His Ways in His Final Year as Berkshire CEO

In a year of record stock highs, artificial-intelligence moonshots and tense standoffs on global trade, Warren Buffett spent much of it watching, and waiting for the right moment to strike.

Buffett, one of corporate America's most-prolific-and patient-dealmakers, stuck to his script in his final year as Berkshire Hathaway's chief executive. With the market's rally limiting opportunities to make large acquisitions, Berkshire sold more stocks than it bought and stockpiled cash.

He further pared Berkshire's stake in Apple when tech stocks were still booming, and bought a petrochemical company with cash. But as the year drew to a close, it became clear Buffett's biggest move in 2025 was his May announcement, from the stage of Berkshire's annual meeting in Omaha, Neb., that he would cede his CEO post to Greg Abel at the end of the year. Even Abel was surprised by the timing.

Bankers Are Gearing Up for Another Onslaught of Monster Deals in 2026

Megadeals returned in full force in 2025. Wall Street is already bracing for another wave in 2026.

There were a record 68 transactions valued at $10 billion or more announced globally this year, according to data from LSEG going back to 1980. That drove the average annual deal size to a new high of nearly $227 million as of Dec. 26.

"Large deals are driving the market. And when you see big deals, it's a sign of CEO and boardroom confidence," said Ivan Farman, global co-head of M&A at Bank of America.

OpenAI Is Paying Employees More Than Any Major Tech Startup in History

OpenAI is paying employees more than any tech startup in recent history, according to financial data it has shown investors.

The company's stock-based compensation is about $1.5 million per employee, on average, across its workforce of roughly 4,000.

That is more than seven times higher than the stock-based pay Google disclosed in 2003, before it filed for an initial public offering in 2004. The $1.5 million is about 34 times the average employee compensation of 18 other large tech companies in the year before they went public, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data compiled by Equilar. The analysis reviewed major tech IPOs over the last 25 years.

TALKING POINT Experts Share Their Wealth Management Predictions for 2026

Wealth management is ever-evolving, spurred along by changing client demands, advancing technology, market shifts and more. What changes lie ahead in 2026? That is the subject of our Barron's Advisor Big Q column for this week. According to advisory firm leaders and consultants, the coming year will see technology platform consolidation, more alternative assets, and greater effectiveness of artificial intelligence tools.

Joel Bruckenstein, president, Technology Tools for Today (T3): Advisors will move away from "best of breed" to fewer vendors. As advisory firms grow, they have tended to adopt more and more technology vendors. The one thing we hear from every advisory firm we work with is that managing those vendor relationships is becoming an increasing burden. Some of this is due to the regulatory burden, but it is also due to cyber risk, the speed of technological change, AI, and many other factors. Advisory firms are looking to consolidate to fewer, deeper tech relationships to help rationalize their tech stacks and be more efficient.

This will also be the year that custom indexing really takes off. Most RIA firms still rely on a combination of ETFs, mutual funds and [separately managed accounts] to create client portfolios. These are not the most efficient structures for a number of reasons. First, they are still too expensive-popular factor-based ETFs that trade on exchanges can cost up to 50 basis points [0.5%]. Thematic ones can cost 60 basis points [0.6%] or more. Furthermore, there is no opportunity to customize these portfolios to the individual needs of clients, nor are there as many tax-loss harvesting opportunities as there could be. In addition, from a marketing perspective, if an advisor is using ETFs and models from a large asset manager, there is no brand distinction. Any RIA firm can produce a similar model using the same ETFs. Today, technology allows advisory firms to produce bespoke portfolios, at scale, at a lower cost. High-net-worth clients expect, and should get, this type of service from their advisors. Clients, and the competitive landscape, suggest that this is the next big wave of portfolio construction.

Finally, a new wave of advisor-focused tech products is coming. Last year was clearly the year of the AI note taker. This year, there will be a more diverse wave of new firms coming to market. AI has enabled more rapid development of software, and we expect to see a new crop of firms meeting a wide range of needs for advisors coming to the fore in 2026.

Henry Zelikovsky, founder and CEO of (software engineering firm) Softlab360: We're already seeing new forms of alternative investments emerging beyond traditional private equity, real estate, and hedge funds. Digital assets and what some people call "exotics" are attracting interest, especially from younger portfolio managers and clients. The challenge is regulatory compliance. As more alternative assets trade through digital platforms and custodians, the industry will need consistent frameworks for oversight. Technology providers will play a critical role by developing systems that manage regulatory reporting, asset qualification, and analytics for these newer investment types.

A second major trend is the integration of disparate data systems. Many advisors today rely on multiple platforms for accounting, analytics, and reporting-Orion, Addepar, Envestnet, and so on-each with separate data feeds. In 2026, we'll see an acceleration of efforts to consolidate this information into centralized "data lakes," enabling firms to take full ownership of their data. Clean, unified data lays the foundation for AI and machine learning to drive meaningful business insights.

--Steve Garmhausen, Barron's

Expected Major Events for Friday

07:00/UK: Dec Nationwide House Price Index

08:45/ITA: Dec Italy Manufacturing PMI

08:50/FRA: Dec France Manufacturing PMI

08:55/GER: Dec Germany Manufacturing PMI

09:30/UK: Dec S&P Global UK Manufacturing PMI

14:30/CAN: Dec Canada Manufacturing PMI

14:45/US: Dec US Manufacturing PMI

16:00/US: Dec Global Manufacturing PMI

21:30/US: Federal Discount Window Borrowings

21:30/US: Foreign Central Bank Holdings

All times in GMT. Powered by Onclusive and Dow Jones.

Expected Earnings for Friday

Bio-Path Holdings Inc $(BPTH)$ is expected to report for 3Q.

Black Titan Corp $(BTTC)$ is expected to report for 3Q.

Lifecore Biomedical Inc (LFCR) is expected to report $0.16 for 2Q.

Sonder Holdings Inc $(SONDQ)$ is expected to report for 3Q.

Taylor Devices Inc (TAYD) is expected to report for 2Q.

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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 31, 2025 16:40 ET (21:40 GMT)

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