ORLANDO, Florida, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The final full trading week of 2025 is underway, but investors can't start winding down for the holiday season just yet, with artificial intelligence jitters and fiscal woes threatening to spoil the festive cheer.

Wall Street, stung last week by gloomy warnings from tech giants Oracle (ORCL.N) , opens new tab and Broadcom (AVGO.O) , opens new tab , remains on edge about the profit-generating capabilities of AI.

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And even though the Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week and unveiled a program of large-scale T-bill purchases, long-term bond yields are rising and yield curves are steepening – both inside and outside the United States.

Does that mean investors should give up hopes for a "Santa rally?"

Below are five charts that should give investors a flavor of what this week may have in store.

1. 30-YEAR BOND YIELDS' RAPID RISE

Yields on long-dated bonds around the world are popping higher. The 30-year U.S. yield last week reached 4.8670%, its highest since early September, as it broke convincingly above the 2025 average of 4.77%. Long bonds now have to contend with the prospect of having both a White House seeking to run the economy hot with loose fiscal policy and a dovish-leaning Fed.

Rising long-term yields are not just a U.S. phenomenon. Japan, Britain and Australia have been in the spotlight recently too, with the 30-year German yield last week leaping to its highest point since 2011.

2. YIELD CURVES' STEEP CLIMB

U.S. fiscal concerns and inflation fears – partly reflecting President Donald Trump's trade and tax policy as well as the politicization of the Fed – are resulting in steeper yield curves overall. The two-year/30-year spread is close to reaching its widest level in four years.

Steeper curves are typically seen as a reflection of "normal" economic and financial conditions. But that's not the case when the back end of the bond market is getting crushed by fears that the central bank has taken its eye off the inflation ball.

3. SILVER'S SPECULATIVE SPURT

If you want evidence of a year-end speculative boom, look no further than silver. It's up 30% in the last three weeks. That is remarkable enough, but what this chart from Brent Donnelly at Spectra Markets shows is even more astonishing: an ounce of silver is now worth more than a barrel of U.S. crude oil for the first time ever, apart from when the price of oil futures briefly dropped below zero in April 2020.

4. ORACLE'S BLURRED VISION

In recent months, Oracle has traded more like a "meme" stock than one of the world's biggest companies. Shares rose 36% in a single day in September and last week slid 15% in two days, a magnitude of decline only seen during the pandemic, 2008 and the dot-com crises. Oracle is increasingly becoming a bellwether of investors' broader sentiment about AI – and the current signals aren't looking good.

5. YUAN'S GROWING STRENGTH

The U.S. dollar has held up well in the second half of the year, with the dollar index up nearly 2% in that period. But it has been on a steady downward path against the Chinese yuan . Going into the last full week of the year, this cross rate is at a 14-month low, with the 7.00-yuan barrier in sight.

Given that China's trade surplus just topped $1 trillion for the first time, pressure is mounting on Beijing to allow the yuan to rise further – much further.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)

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https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/global-markets-charts-roi-column-graphics-2025-12-15/