Global markets begin turning the page on a record-setting year.
Plus, the AI boom lifted more than stock markets this year.
Exhibit A, open AI, employee pay packages.
And we'll hear from Journal Bureau chiefs from around the world about what to watch for in 2026.
For the coming year, we're going to see China's push for peer equality to the United States.
They're actively working to re-engineer the global playing field.
It's Wednesday, December 31st.
I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal,
and this is What's News in your feed once a day over the holidays with the top headlines and business stories moving the world.
today.
That is the last opening bell of the year in New York.
The final trading session of 2025 finds US stocks slightly lower,
but still trading near record highs with the S&P 500 on pace for a roughly 17% annual gain.
It's an outcome that Journal reporter David Uberti said looked far from certain earlier this year.
The big moment to bookend this year was the quote unquote liberation day tariffs announced in April by President Trump.
It really sparked market chaos, just the idea of a new era of trade barriers,
really reorienting the global economy away from increased globalization.
Markets tanked, investors in Wall Street and elsewhere sold off risky assets.
But since then, investors have come back to the market in a very big way.
And that's in large part because of this AI boom.