Today: Rate cut juices the stock market and nativity scenes become acts of protest

Today as it Happened on Wednesday, December 10, 2025:

The U.S. stock market neared its all-time high after the Federal Reserve cut its main interest rate to bolster the job market, and hopes strengthened for more cuts to come in 2026.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% and ended just shy of its all-time high set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.

The rate cut was widely expected, but investors said comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell may have been less harsh about closing off the possibility of future cuts than Wall Street had been bracing for.

Several churches across the country are setting up nativity scenes this holiday season that make a political statement about immigration enforcement, with some depicting the Holy Family as missing or detained.

These nativity displays come as faith leaders continue to advocate for immigrant communities amid the Trump administration's aggressive immigration agenda.

And Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was unable to attend today's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, where she was honored for her work promoting democracy in Venezuela. Her daughter Anna accepted the award on her behalf.

Machado has been in hiding for months and has only been seen publicly once during that time — at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro's inauguration as he began his third term following what she and fellow opposition politicians call a stolen election.

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