How The Stock Market Performed In 2025

Image Source: PexelsThe bull market has entered its fourth year, by most accounts, as all of the major indexes posted double digit gains in 2025.It is the third calendar year in a row of double-digit gains for the major indexes. The three year stretch of 2023 – 2025 has been the best for the stock market since the Dotcom boom from 1997-1999.Here’s a look at how the six five major indexes performed, with their year end totals and percentage gain for the calendar year.S&P 500: 6,845 – up 16.4%Dow Jones Industrial Average: 48,063.29 – up 13.0%Nasdaq Composite: 23,241.99 – up 20.4%Russell 2000 (small caps): 2,481.91 – up 11.3%S&P 400 (mid caps): 3,305.14 – up 5.9%For the S&P 500, the 16.4% return follows returns of 24% in 2023 and 23% in 2024. The three year return is the best since the Dotcom Boom when the S&P 500 returned 33%, 29%, and 21% from 1997 through 1999.The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was the best performer in 2025, and that’s even more striking when you consider the fact that it was down about 21% at its lowest point this year on April 8. The crash was due initially to a variety of factors, including massive budget cuts early in the year, a correction of overvalued tech stocks, a negative first quarter GDP, and the announcement of the tariffs.Since then, the Nasdaq surged 52% to end the year at 23,242. The reasons for the turnaround have been well-documented, with much of it driven by the AI boom, a pullback on some of the initial tariffs, strong corporate earnings, a recovering economy, and reduced interest rates, among other factors.Western Digital the top stock of 2025The S&P 500 and the Dow hit all-time closing highs on December 24, reaching 6,932 and 48,731 on that date, respectively. The Nasdaq Composite hit its all-time closing high on October 29 at 23,958.The top performing stock on the S&P 500 in 2025 was Western Digital (Nasdaq: WDC), a provider of large capacity hard disk drives. It returned about 319% in 2025.Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU), which makes high bandwidth memory and storage chips, was the second best performer last year, returning 274% for the year.Seagate Technology (Nasdsaq: STX), a rival of Western Digital in the hard disk drive space, was third with an annual return of 235%.The top stock on the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2025 was Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), the farm equipment manufacturer. It returned 69% in 2025.Financial service giant Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) was second with a 64% return last year. Goldman Sachs was buoyed by a strong year for M&A.Third on the Dow was AI chip maker Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA), which returned 41% last year. Its down from the triple-digit returns of the previous two years, but was a still as strong year for the world’s most valuable company.More By This Author:2025 Rewind: The Year U.S. Crypto Policy Finally ShiftedETH And SOL Down Over 50% Triggers Year-End Altcoin Dumping - LiquidChain Moves Against The Flow2025 Rewind: Bitcoin Hits $126K As ETFs, Institutions Power Bull Run