NEW YORK — Stock prices on Wall Street closed the last trading session of the year with modest losses.
Still, the S&P 500 index ended 2023 with a gain of more than 24%, while the Dow Jones industrial average closed the year near an all-time high, after a supposed lower inflation and the possibility of lower interest rates in 2024 that encouraged investors, especially in the last two months of the year.
The S&P 500 fell 13.52 points, or 0.3%, to finish at 4,769.83 in the final day of the year. That’s just 0.6% away from the all-time high reached in January 2022, and leaves the index with nine consecutive weeks of gains.
The Dow on Wall Street fell 20.56 points, or 0.1%, to settle at 37,689 after setting a record on Thursday.
The Nasdaq shed 83.78 points, or 0.6%, to settle at 15,011.35, but that was barely a blemish on an annual gain of more than 43%, its best performance since 2020.
The broader market’s gains were driven by the so-called Magnificent 7: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla, which account for about two-thirds of the S&P 500’s gains this year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Nvidia leads the pack with a gain of about 239%.
Most major indices managed to erase their losses from a dismal 2022. Small business stocks had a late rally, but managed to erase most of their losses from last year. The Russell 2000 index ended 2023 with a gain of 15.1% after falling 21.6% in 2022.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond, which reached 5% in October, remained at 3.88% on Friday, compared to 3.85% the day before.
US crude oil and international crude oil prices remained relatively stable on Friday. The price of oil has fallen more than 10% this year, defying some experts’ predictions that it could surpass $100 a barrel.
Source: With information from AFP.
