The stock market soared this year. What will happen in 2025? [Video]

The stock market climbed to record highs in 2024, extending banner gains achieved the previous year.

The S&P 500 — the index that most people’s 401(k)’s track — climbed nearly 28% this year, as of Monday.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq leapt a staggering 34% over that period; while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 16%.

Consecutive years of strong stock market performance have posed a quandary for forecasters: Will high stock prices scare off would-be investors in 2025, or will momentum push shares even higher?

Experts have attributed the rise of share prices this year to a set of favorable trends: Solid economic growth, enthusiasm about artificial intelligence and the long-awaited start of interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve.

Those tail winds are expected to keep pushing stocks skyward in 2025, experts said, but they cautioned about more-than-usual uncertainty that could prevent further gains or even amplify them. The biggest unknown for stocks in 2025, they said: President-elect Donald Trump.

“As …