When will markets close for Christmas? Christmas Day falls on a Sunday this year. That means the US stock market will be closed on Monday, Dec. 26. Bond traders also have Monday off, but debt markets will close one hour earlier than usual on Friday, Dec. 23 at 2 pm Eastern before the long weekend. The same routine holds for the New Year’s holiday, with both the stock and bond markets closed on Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, resulting in a second straight week of abbreviated trade on Wall Street. The bond market also gets an early 2 pm Eastern close on Friday, Dec. 30 before ringing in 2023. It has been a year of historic losses in financial markets as the Federal Reserve quickly raised its policy rate to levels last experienced 15 years ago to fight inflation that appears to have peaked at 9.1% this summer, a 40- year high. Read: Wall Street’s stock-market forecasts for 2022 were off by the widest margin since 2008: Will next year be any different? What’s more, Fed Chair Jerome Powell in December indicated that the central bank’s fed-funds rate could top out above 5% in 2023, and stay high for a while, or until inflation shows a concrete path lower to the Fed’s 2% target. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.653% was near 3.684% heading into the last two weeks of 2022, up from 1.457% a year ago, according to Dow Jones Market Data. See: US bonds wrap up worst year on record. Here’s what may be in store for 2023. The S&P 500 index SPX, +1.49% was on pace for a roughly 19% decline in 2022, which would be its worst year since it tumbled almost 40% in 2008, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.60% was set to shed about 8% for the year while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +1.54% was down about 30%, according to FactSet. Also read: Is a 2023 stock-market rebound in store after 2022 selloff? What history says about back-to-back losing years.