The stock market is at highs with JPMorgan, Goldman, Taiwan Semi and Delta earnings due. Two huge conferences, inflation data and perhaps a Trump tariffs ruling also are on tap.

The U.S. stock market was climbing midday Friday, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each trading in record territory. . The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up about 261 points, or 0.5%,

Wall Street is assessing the US military strike and capture of President Maduro in Venezuela, while hopes for AI demand buoy techs.

U.S. stocks rose to more records following a mixed report on the U.S. job market. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% Friday and topped its prior all-time high set earlier in the week.

Despite a more than 14% year-to-date gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average as of market close on Dec. 26, there are five Dow stocks that are down 10% or more in 2025: Home Depot ( HD 0.65%), Procter & Gamble ( PG 0.51%), Nike ( NKE +4.12%), Salesforce ( CRM 0.38%), and UnitedHealth Group ( UNH 0.62%).

Even suggesting that the Dogs of the Dow could outperform the Magnificent 7 in 2026 seems ludicrous. The Dogs consist of stodgy, beaten-down stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, often mature companies that have underperformed recently,

Major stock indexes finished mixed Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rising but the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled lower by data-storage shares.

In other news, defense stocks rallied on Thursday as President Donald Trump proposed a historic $1.5T defense budget for 2027. Companies Huntington Ingalls Industries ( HII) +5.2%, Lockheed Martin ( LMT) +3.4%, and L3Harris Technologies ( LHX) +5.1% were among the top performers of the sector.