Stock Market Live December 22: Gold, Silver, and Nvidia Rallies Drive S&P 500 (VOO) Higher
Quick Read
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Capping a year in which its price doubled, silver prices rise 2% to start off the trading week.
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Gold prices are up 68% so far this year, including a 1% gain this morning.
Live Updates
Sealed Air Won't Float Any Higher
A different Raymond James analyst, Matt Roberts this time, downgraded Sealed Air (NYSE: SEE | SEE Price Prediction) stock to market perform this morning.
“Following the previously announced take-private offer from CD&R and the conclusion of the “Go-Shop’ period on December 16,” said Roberts, “we expect narrow odds (at best) of a topping bid and downgrade SEE to Market Perform with shares expected to hover around the takeout price of $42.15 until the anticipated mid-2026 close.”
Long story short, Sealed Air stock is up 22% this year — and RJ expects it will go no higher. Might as well sell, book your profits, and move on to the next opportunity.
Cummins Motors Higher
Raymond James analyst Tim Thein upgraded Cummins (NYSE: CMI) stock to outperform with a $585 price target this morning.
The engine-maker is up 44% already this year, but Thein says he still sees “a compelling risk/reward trade-off with” as much as 20% upside if truck markets recover, versus limited downside if truck production weakens further.
Cummins shares are up more than 2% on the endorsement, while the Voo gains 0.6%.
BlackSky Stock Just Mooned
Visions of sugarplums may be dancing in others’ heads, but investment bank Jefferies is still thinking of nought but stocks this week.
This morning, Jefferies initiated coverage of spy satellite operator BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) with a buy rating and a $23 price target of $23.00. BlackSky shares reacted immediately, surging 20% to hit the new price target in mere minutes on no other news but the initiation.
Jefferies says “BlackSky’s unique space based imagery offering provides runway on expanding international adoption, recovery of USG, and a refreshed constellation by YE 2026 supporting 2 to 4X revenue generation.” That appears to mean Jefferies sees 200% to 400% revenue growth next year — an incredible prediction given that most analysts are forecasting much more moderate (but still impressive) 32.5% revenue growth.
No wonder the stock is up!
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
Another holiday-shortened trading week begins today, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) is feeling the Christmas spirit. The ETF opened up 0.6% Monday.
Helping to fuel the rally is again Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), which plans to begin shipments of its H200 AI chip to China in February. Initial orders are said to total anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 H200 chips. At prices as high as $40,000 per ship, that’s as much as $3.2 billion in revenue for Nvidia, all in one go.
In precious metal news, gold prices are up another 1% at $4,443.10 per ounce today. Silver is up 2.3% to $69.06 per ounce. Gold prices are up 68% so far this year, and silver prices have more than doubled.
And in M&A news, asset manager Janus Henderson (NYSE: JHG) just announced it will sell itself to Trian and General Catalyst for $49 per share cash in a deal valued at $7.4 billion.
Janus stock is up nearly 4% on the news.
Earnings
There’s not a lot happening on the earnings front this week, but this morning office paper supplier Ennis (NYSE: EBF) beat earnings by a penny with $0.42 per share earned in Q3 2025.
Revenue for the quarter was $100.2 million, slightly below estimates, but investors seem in a forgiving mood. Ennis stock is up nearly 3%. versus the consensus estimate of $100.9 million.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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