Wall Street futures are falling as a strong holiday-shortened week comes to an end

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday at the end of a positive, holiday-shortened week for major Wall Street indexes, driven by expectations surrounding a traditionally strong market period.

The Dow closed higher for a sixth straight session on Thursday in weak year-end trading, while higher U.S. Treasury yields weighed on some heavyweight technology and growth stocks.

As of 5:09 a.m. ET Friday, Dow E-minis were down 119 points, or 0.27%, and S&P 500 E-minis were down 22 points, or 0.36%.

Futures tracking the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 92.25 points, or 0.42%, while Nvidia lost 0.8% and Tesla lost 1.4% in premarket trading.

The S&P 500 recouped much of last week’s losses as the Federal Reserve forecast fewer interest rate cuts in 2025, hurting risk appetite.

The leading index is now facing its best week in seven and is around 1% below its all-time high of 6,099.97 points reached on December 6th.

With three sessions remaining until the end of the year, investors are hoping for new all-time highs in the stock buying season dubbed the “Santa Claus Rally” – the last five sessions in December and the first two sessions in January.

Since 1969, the S&P 500 has risen an average of 1.3% in seven-day trading periods, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

Trading volumes in this holiday-shortened week were below the six-month average and are expected to remain subdued through January 6. The next big focus for markets will be the December employment report, due on January 10th.

(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)