Luke Vargas

Global markets begin turning the page on a record-setting year.

Plus, the AI boom lifted more than stock markets this year.

Exhibit A, open AI, employee pay packages.

And we'll hear from Journal Bureau chiefs from around the world about what to watch for in 2026.

It's Wednesday, December 31st.

I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News, in your feed once a day over the holidays with the top headlines and business stories moving the world today.

That is the last opening bell of the year in New York.

The final trading session of 2025 finds U.S.

stocks slightly lower, but still trading near record highs, with the S&P 500 on pace for a roughly 17 percent annual gain.

It's an outcome that journal reporter David Uberti said looked far from certain earlier this year.

Well, helping to drive that boom is OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

According to financial data shown to investors, it paid its employees this year more than any tech startup has in history.

So what does that work out to for the company's roughly 4,000 employees?

An average $1.5 million each in stock-based compensation.

In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng has logged its best year since 2017.

The Shanghai Composite rose 18%, its strongest performance since before the pandemic.

But good luck topping Korea's Kospi, which jumped more than 75%, a gain not seen since 1999.

In Europe, Germany's DAX finished up 23% in its best year since 2019, while the FTSE in the UK gained 22%.

its strongest performance since 2009.

In other trading, gold and silver futures slipped today but remain on course for the strongest gains since 1979.