Wall Street is looking rather subdued, as traders get their final orders in before Christmas.

The Dow Jones industrial average has dipped by 23 points or 0.1% to 28,526, having hit record highs (again) on Monday.

It’s a 1pm finish (6pm UK time), so there’s still time for some drama. Perhaps the Santa Rally might make a late appearance, as we saw in London today?

Uber’s shares have risen 1.3% following news of Travis Kalanick’s departure from its board.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives reckons it will help CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to lift Uber’s fortunes, after posting hefty losses this year.

He told clients (via Marketwatch):

“Given the pace of his insider sales and other initiatives he has on the horizon, it makes sense for Uber and Kalanick to go their separate ways at this time as it would be a distraction in our opinion if he remained in the Board room going forward.

“Many investors will be glad to see this dark chapter in the rear view mirror as the overhang from the lockup has been a lingering cloud over the Uber name over the past few months.

A quick update: Wall Street opened higher, as the recent stock rally continued to push shares up.

But it then faltered, as traders worried about tensions with North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yesterday caused alarm, when he warned America to expect a“Christmas gift”.

Donald Trump has now brushed this aside, telling reporters the United States would “deal with it very successfully” and that perhaps it would be a “nice present”.

Trump said:

“We’ll find out what the surprise is and we’ll deal with it very successfully.

We’ll see what happens.”

The prospect of a Phase One trade deal between the US and China may have lifted markets this year....but there’s less optimism that a fuller deal will emerge soon.

As Vishnu Varathan of Mizuho Bank told clients:

“There are few reasons to believe that optimism about a broader or ‘Phase 2’ could emerge in the near term.”

Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo points out that trillions of dollars have been added to stock values this year:

Britain’s FTSE 250 index has surged by 25% this year, while the bigger FTSE 100 has gained 13%.

That puts the FTSE 250 among the best-performing indices, while the 100 is one of the laggards.

Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada has sent this chart over, showing how stock markets around the world have rallied in 2019.

Razaqzada sums up the year:

At the top of the tree is the Nasdaq 100 and at the bottom is Spain’s Ibex and UK’s FTSE 100 among major global indices.

Stocks have rallied across the board in 2019, even if there were turbulences along the way as investors worried over Brexit and the damaging trade war between the US and China, among other things. But as optimism grew that the world’s largest economies were agreeing to a phase one trade deal, stocks pushed higher – especially in the US. Tepid economic growth in Europe kept the gains in check for indices in this continent.

But this lack of economic growth and non-existent inflationary pressures meant investors were confident that the major central banks were not going to exit zero or negative interest rate policy, and QE, any time soon.

They therefore saw the higher-yielding equities as one of the most attractive assets again, causing global stock markets to rise sharply. But as the central bank balance sheet grows ever larger, the withdrawal of such liquidity is a major concern that could come back to haunt stocks at some point down the line.

The FTSE 100 had a more muted day. It gained just 8 points, to finish at a five-month high of 7632.

Lloyds Banking Group ended the day as the top rise, up nearly 2%, with distribution firm Bunzl (1.6%) and chemicals firm Croda (+1.5%) close behind.

The UK stock market is now closed until Friday, giving investors a break from trading.

But while trading floors will be quiet, the Internet will be fizzling as UK shoppers look for bargains.

Analysts predict that more than £1bn will be spent online tomorrow, as the traditional festive sales get underway.

Shipping firm Clarkson led the FTSE 250 rally, finishing 3.5% higher.

Housebuilder Redrow gained 2.8%, amid hopes that the housing market might pick up next year

Britain’s FTSE 250 also enjoyed a late surge, and was at record levels as it entered the closing auction.....

As if by magic, European stock markets are rallying.

The Stoxx 600 index of Europe’s largest companies is now up 0.2%, and just hit a new all-time high.

Looks like the Santa Rally is real after all, kids!

Russia’s stock market is one of the better performers today.

The RTS index has risen by 0.3%, or 4 points, to 1,539. Energy giant Gazprom is among the risers, after raising $13bn of funds to build a new gas plant.

The rouble is also strengthening, up 0.3% to 62.06 to the US dollar. That’s nearly its best level of the year, boosted by foreign companies buying roubles to pay tax bills.

Santa is also giving the Madrid stock market the cold shoulder today.

Spain’s IBEX 35 index has dipped by 22 points, or 0.2%, to 9,637 -- one of the few European markets actually open today. France’s CAC is very slightly higher.

With an hour’s trading to go, the FTSE 100 is just hanging onto a five-month high.

It’s up 6 points at 7630. Distribution firm Bunzl is now the top riser, up 1,7%, with Ocado close behind (now up 1.6%).

China’s stock market had a good day, with the CSI 300 index closing 0.7% higher.

Stocks rallied after vice-premier Li Keqiang suggested China’s key interest rates could be cut to stimulate the economy. Beijing’s plan to cut tariffs on 850 products next month also cheered traders.

But there’s also anxiety about whether the trade war with America will cool next year.

Société Générale’s Kit Juckes suspects the tensions could rumble on in 2020, as taking a tough line with Beijing could play well with US voters.

Speaking on Bloomberg TV this morning, Juckes said that unless Donald Trump gets a “fantastic trade deal”, the president will be tempted to “keep fighting the good fight for the American worker”.

Like King Wenceslas trudging through the snow, the FTSE 250 index is marching slowly higher today.

The index of medium-size listed companies is up 30 points, or 0.13% at 21,872 today, close to last week’s record high.

Heat treatment firm Bodycote is among the risers, after announcing a deal this morning. It has acquired US rival Ellison Surface Technologies for $200m.

This will create “one of the world’s largest providers of thermal spray and engineered coating surface technology services to the aerospace industry.”

The jump in the gold price shows that investors are trying to preserve capital in case of turbulence next year, says Marios Hadjikyriacos, investment analyst at XM.

He writes:

Some headlines overnight that North Korea is thinking about developing new weapons may have helped the move, but the real catalyst is likely that portfolio managers are increasing their defensive exposure.

After such a strong year, when almost every single asset class was up double digits, this is probably a prudent time to ‘play some defense’ and hedge your risk heading into 2020, especially with gold prices trading at a minor discount relative to recent months.

Online grocery business Ocado is the top riser in London this morning, up 2.5%.

It could prove to be one of this year’s Christmas winners, having been bombarded with orders.

Last week Ocado’s CEO, Melanie Smith, emailed customers warning that their systems were creaking under the strain.

Apparently, Ocado’s website and app had been “overwhelmed by festive shoppers” adding more items to their orders (fortunately for me, the ever-efficient Mrs W had organised our delivery already).

Smith recommended editing orders before 6pm, as:

Our customers’ love for great food and drink this Christmas is unlike anything we’ve seen before.

The Santa Rally is a long-established City tradition. The idea is that stocks typically rise during the final few trading days of December, and the start of the New Year.

There’s not much sign of it today, though.

Britain’s FTSE 100 is up, but just 4 points higher at 7627. That means it could hit a new 5-month closing high at lunchtime today.

France’s CAC 40 is equally becalmed, up 2 points at 6,031, while Germany and Italy are closed today.

Perhaps traders weren’t good enough this year (surely not?!). Or maybe Santa came early - the Footsie did gain 41 points yesterday in a pre-Christmas rally.

Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at Forex.com, reckons gold and silver prices could both keep rallying in 2020.

He suspects precious metal prices are ‘breaking out’ of their previous trading range. Partly that’s thanks to central banks - whose loose monetary policy has driven asset prices up. But increased demand, perhaps from China, is another factor.

He writes:

• First and foremost, the negative relationship between gold and the S&P 500 has been broken down over the past few years with both assets moving higher in 2016, 2017 and now 2019, and falling in 2018.
  
  
• Undoubtedly this is, at least in part, because central bank liquidity is finding its way not just in stocks, but other markets too, such as property and gold.
  
  
• Fund managers making profit from their long US equity holdings would be reinvesting in other parts of their portfolios when they rebalance them. This obviously includes safe-haven gold for many money managers.
  
  
• As I have said before, a trade deal between the US and China may be good news for risk assets (and it has), but it is not necessarily bad news for haven gold. After all, rising optimism over a trade deal has helped the yuan strengthen slightly, making gold relatively less expensive in yuan terms. With China being one of if not the largest gold consumer, this implies increased demand from this important market, especially ahead of the Lunar New Year when gift jewellery purchases tend to rise.

Gold has actually enjoyed its best year since 2010.

Bullion is up 17% since the start of this year, from $1,265/ounce on January 1 to $1,451 today.

Many other assets have had a strong 12 months too -- with some stock markets up 20%.

But gold’s strength reflects caution about the world economy and geopolitics.

As the Wall Street Journal puts it:

“The fact that investors are still holding a decent chunk of gold gives you a good feeling as to how they are literally hedging their bets,” said Altaf Kassam, head of investment strategy for State Street STT 0.28% Global Advisors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “Gold is definitely not looking like a bad place to store some value or have a hedge.”

Gold prices have kept climbing in recent weeks even though improving economic data and President Trump’s provisional trade deal with China have pushed U.S. stocks to a series of all-time highs.

The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes has also risen, from 1.778% at the end of November to 1.934% Monday. Higher bond yields typically make gold, which pays no interest, less attractive for investors to own.