Weekly Market Commentary: Equities, Precious Metals Rise During Quiet Week

Sunflower Bank Weekly Market Commentary: December 29, 2025

Each week, our Wealth Management team analyzes the U.S. stock market and bond market activity and news of the previous week, summarizing their findings into a weekly market update report. The key points of this week's commentary, "Equities, Precious Metals Rise During Quiet Week," include:

• Equity markets rose during the holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 increased +1.4%, the Nasdaq 100 gained +1.2%, and the Russell 2000 rose +0.2%. Moving beyond equity markets, precious metals had a very strong week. Gold rose +4.5% on the week, with silver and platinum exhibiting even more substantial returns. Silver rose +18% last week and platinum increased +25%.
• The change in the price of gold, which is up +73% year-to-date, has been supported by central bank buying of the metal. According to a December note by Goldman Sachs, central banks have been buying gold at a rate of 73 tons per month this year. This amount compares to the pre-2022 average rate of about 20 tons per month.
• Turning to the economy, the November CPI report was released on December 18th. The November CPI report caught investors attention for a few reasons. First, this measure of inflation came in well below expectations. The other reason the November CPI release drew significant attention was the methodology the BLS used to calculate the data. Due to the government shutdown, the agency was unable to accurately calculate the change in price of various categories. In lieu of actual data, the agency had to estimate the change in many categories. The most notable of these was shelter inflation, which accounts for approximately 40% of the core CPI reading. This category appears to have been held flat month-over-month, in contrast to recent monthly gains.

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