US stocks closed the holiday week on a downbeat note as Wall Street slogged to the finish of a largely triumphant year.
The S&P 500 (
^GSPC
) lost 1.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (
^IXIC
) shed 1.5% Friday at the close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (
^DJI
) gave up 0.8%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield (
^TNX
) hovered near seven-month highs around 4.6%.
After stacking impressive gains this year, some of the biggest names in tech lost ground as investors took profits, rebalance portfolios, or reassessed their lofty valuations. Tesla (
TSLA
) lost 5%. Nvidia (
NVDA
) gave up c2%, while Amazon (
AMZN
) decreased by 1%.
Wall Street has just three trading days remaining in a 2024 full of big gains, but markets have been unable to mount a
"Santa Claus" rally
into the end of the year.
Despite the negative day, the S&P 500 logged a weekly gain of 1.8%. The Nasdaq also posted a win of 1.8%, while the Dow notched a 1.5% increase.
Markets have largely digested the year's remaining key economic data points, and investors are now turning their attention to two big themes for the coming year: the
Federal Reserve's path for interest rates
and the implications of Donald Trump's ascent back to the White House.
On the former, stocks have largely taken in stride the Fed's plans to scale back rate cuts next year after an initial plunge last week. Bets have now shifted squarely to May as the next meeting at which the Fed will slash interest rates, as it
continues to grapple with stubborn inflation
while keeping
a close eye on a cooling labor market
.
And on the latter,
Yahoo Finance's Ben Werschkul writes
that while Trump talked up his big plans during the campaign, especially on the economy, those plans could soon face a reality check from other key power players.
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