Santa Rally Falls Short: Top ETF Performers of December

Wall Street put up a mixed show in December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, marking its eighth straight winning month – the longest such streak since 2018 (per CNBC). The S&P 500 slipped about 0.06% for the month, while the Nasdaq Composite finished down about 1%.

Santa Claus Rally Under Pressure

The final five trading sessions of the month were utterly downbeat, with the Nasdaq losing 1.3%, the S&P 500 retreating 0.9% and the Dow Jones falling 0.7%. For the second straight year, the S&P 500 is ending December with a four-day losing streak, once again putting the much-anticipated Santa Claus Rally at risk.

Historically, the Stock Trader’s Almanac notes that stocks tend to rise during the final five trading days of the year and the first two sessions of the new year — a seasonal pattern that now seems to be under threat, as mentioned in CNBC.

Specific Corners Won While Broad-Based Strength Absent

The S&P 500 rallied 24% in 2023, 23% in 2024 and 16% in 2025, resulting in an almost 80% gain over three years. That marks the strongest return over a three-year win streak since 2019-2021 when the index soared 90%, as quoted on the same CNBC article. It also represented the second-best three-year win streak since 2000.

But then, historically, the market has struggled to extend winning streaks beyond three years. The S&P 500 has not posted four consecutive annual gains since the five-year run from 2003 to 2007, the same CNBC article noted.

The Fed has issued hawkish guidance for 2026. The U.S. labor market cooled while inflation remains sticky. The net impact of Trump tariffs is yet to be seen and understood clearly. Developed-market central banks are unlikely to cut rates at the beginning of 2026.

Overvaluation and payoff concerns are thriving in the red-hot artificial intelligence (AI) space that drove the market over the past three years. Overall, geopolitics and uncertainty will rule in the near term. No wonder, some specific corners have emerged as winners in December.    

Winning ETF Areas of December

Cannabis

AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF MSOS – Up 35.6%

Roundhill Cannabis ETF WEED – Up 35.5%

Cannabis stocks surged significantly in mid-December, thanks to reports of President Trump's plans to ease federal marijuana regulations by reclassifying it to Schedule III from Schedule I. The news sparked gains across major players, boosting investor optimism (read: Cannabis ETFs Soar Double-Digits on Friday: Here's Why).

Silver

abrdn Physical Silver Shares ETF SIVR – Up 25.9%

iShares Silver Trust SLV – Up 25.8%

Silver prices climbed to fresh highs, supported by supply constraints and strengthening industrial demand. Often considered an industrial metal, silver plays a critical role in modern technologies like AI and clean energy solutions.

Additionally, the U.S. dollar slumped materially in December with the Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund UUP losing about 4.2% during the month. A weakening greenback is also a favorable factor for commodities prices as they are priced in the U.S. dollar.

Platinum

abrdn Physical Platinum Shares ETF PPLT – Up 22.2%

GraniteShares Platinum Trust PLTM – Up 21.9%

Platinum prices have surged lately, touching their strongest level, per Tradingeconomics, mainly due to supply crunch and increased industrial usage. The World Platinum Investment Council forecasts a 2025 deficit of 692,000 ounces, marking a third successive annual shortfall. Industrial demand from the auto sector is also showing signs of recovery, thanks to the EU’s plans to ease the 2035 internal combustion engine ban, as quoted on Tradingeconomics.

Space

Procure Space ETF UFO – Up 16.2%

Rocket Lab Corp RKLB skyrocketed about 73% in December. The stock is benefiting from the uptick in investors’ attention toward the overall space economy. Rocket Lab’s successful move in the next-gen Neutron rocket and the securing of new funding from the Canadian Space Agency were other positives. There has been a report about a potential $1.5 trillion SpaceX IPO for 2026 (per Bloomberg, as quoted on Yahoo Finance). SpaceX news acted as a cornerstone for the entire space investing arena.

Copper Mining

Global X Copper Miners ETF COPX – Up 14.3%

Copper prices hit a record in 2025, as high demand met fragile supply. The rapid build-out of AI data centers has lately emerged as a major new pillar of copper demand, thanks to the metal’s critical role in high-capacity power lines, transformers and cooling infrastructure. Rising copper prices offered a boost to the mining ETF (read: The Red Metal's AI Revolution: Copper ETFs Poised for a Strong 2026).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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