Wall Street caps a record-breaking year by closing little down

 Wall Street caps a record-breaking year by closing little down

Wall Street caps a record-breaking year by closing little down

The S&P 500 lost 13.52 points, or 0.28%, to 4,769.83, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 83.78 points, or 0.56%, to 15,011.35, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 20.56 points, or 0.05%, to 37,689.54.

On Friday, the last trading day of 2023, US equities finished the year with a little decline as investors looked forward to loose monetary policy in the new year.

The last months of the year have seen a spectacular surge in the stock market, with gains reported on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis for all three main indexes.

Each of the three saw double-digit increase for the year.

Oliver Pursche, the position of senior vice president at Wealthspire. " Consultant, in New York, stated, "In January of this year, 363 days ago, if I had said I believed the S&P was going to gain over 20 percent in 2023, you would have placed me in the somewhat insane category." "There are definitely reasons to be happy about this year and hopeful about 2024."

Nevertheless, the three main US market indexes finished the day down.

The short selloff that occurred today actually has no basis," Purshay said. "There's no news that's driving it."

"I might attribute this to last-minute portfolio changes, profit-booking and maybe some rebalancing as we began the new year."

The last few months of the year saw small caps resurrect; by the end of October, the Russell 2000 had recovered from a 7.1% year-to-date loss to close the year with a 15.1% year-to-date gain.

Nine weeks have seen weekly gains for the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq; this is the longest winning run for the S&P 500 since January 2004 and the longest winning run for the Dow and Nasdaq since early 2019.

The S&P 500 is still trading at around 1% below its closing record high from January 3, 2022. The bellwether index would have entered a bull market after hitting its bear market bottom in October 2022 if it closed above that level, or 4,796.56.

The US financial crisis in March, the rise in artificial intelligence stocks, the collapse of oil supplies as a result of the Israel-Hamas conflict, and concerns that the US economy would enter a recession were just a few of the turbulent events that marked the year.

A notable rally at the end of the year was fueled by falling interest rates, which grew stronger in December when the Federal Reserve hinted at a potential 2024 interest rate cut for the United States following a campaign of rate hikes that contributed to inflation and the central bank's reduction to its 2% annual target.

The S&P 500 lost 13.52 points, or 0.28%, to 4,769.83, the Nasdaq Submersible dropped 83.78 points, or 0.56%, to 15,011.35, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 20.56 points, or 0.05%, to 37,689.54.

Real estate had the most percentage drop out of the S&P 500's 11 main sectors. The only sectors to benefit were consumer goods and healthcare.

Utilities, energy, and consumer basics were the top achievers for the year, followed by technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary.

Following Nomura's reported downgrade of the ride-sharing platform, Lyft sank 3.5% and Uber Technologies slid 2.5% among corporate movers.

On Monday, January 1, New Year's Day, the markets will be closed.

On the NYSE, declining issues outnumbered rising ones by a ratio of 2.46 to 1; on the Nasdaq, declines were favored by a ratio of 2.41 to 1.

While the Nasdaq Composite achieved 87 new highs and 53 new lows, the S&P 500 registered 31 new 52-week highs and no new lows.

10.58 billion shares were traded on US exchanges during the session, which was lower than the 12.43 billion average for the previous 20 trading days.