U.S. stock indexes are falling Thursday to start 2025. The S&P 500 was down 0.7% in afternoon trading after rising as much as 0.9% earlier. It's coming off a four-day losing streak, its longest since early September,

Analysts see corporate earnings improving beyond just big tech names. From market psychology and monetary policy to the White House and Federal Reserve, there are a lot of factors that move the stock market.

A soft finish to 2024 still left stocks with a second straight stellar year. The S&P 500 logged a 23.3% gain, which follows a 24% rise in 2023. The combined gains of more than 53% was the largest two-year percentage jump for the index since year-end 1998,