Nasdaq, S&P 500 Futures Edge Lower For Final Session Of 2025: Why NVDA, TSLA, VNDA Are On Traders' Radar Today

• The subdued tone follows a third straight day of marginal losses for major indices.
• Retail sentiment on major ETFs such as SPY and QQQ remains mixed on Stocktwits.
• December FOMC minutes showing a divided Fed on 2026 rate cuts continue to weigh on sentiment.

U.S. stock futures were trading slightly lower early Wednesday, signalling a third consecutive day of marginal losses for the major indices. As markets head into the final session of 2025, caution prevails following the December FOMC minutes, which revealed a divided Federal Reserve regarding the pace of interest rate cuts in 2026.

As of 3:10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.3%, S&P 500 futures fell 0.19%, and the Dow futures fell 0.1%, while Russell 2000 futures fell 0.3%.

On Stocktwits, however, retail sentiment toward the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index, remained ‘neutral’. While sentiment toward the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) ETF, which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, has remained ‘bullish’, amid low message volumes.

Note that U.S. Treasury markets will close early at 2:00 PM ET today, while equity markets will trade for their regular session. However, markets will be closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day.

Trending Stocks To Watch

Nvidia (NVDA): Reports suggest that the company is scrambling to meet the demand for its H200 AI chips from Chinese companies and has asked its contract manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., to ramp up output. It is also interesting to note that Wedbush’s Dan Ives laid out his top five AI picks for 2026 earlier this week, and Nvidia is not on that list. 

Vanda Pharma (VNDA): Has received FDA clearance for NEREUS (tradipitant), the first new motion sickness treatment in over 40 years.

Tesla (TSLA): Stock is on retail radar after earlier weakness ahead of Q4 delivery takeaways due later this week. This comes even as the company officially signaled that Cybercab production has begun. Meanwhile, Michael Burry, the famed ‘Big Short’ investor, called Tesla’s market capitalization ‘ridiculously overvalued.’

With the Federal health subsidies under the Affordable Care Act expiring tonight (Dec 31), watch for healthcare provider and insurer stocks today.

Other noteworthy tickers trending on Stocktwits at the time of writing were iShares Silver Trust (SLV), SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), Micron Technology (MU), and Viking Therapeutics (VKTX).

Other Catalysts To Watch

On the economic front, investors are looking ahead to the release of initial jobless claims, among other data releases.

-Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 am ET)
-Dec Chicago PMI (9:45 am ET)
-EIA Crude Oil Inventories (10:30 am ET)

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com

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