Wall Street ends slightly lower, capping blockbuster year
U.S. stocks closed modestly lower on Friday, the last trading day of 2023, capping a robust year-end rally as investors eyed easier monetary policy in the year ahead.
The stock market has seen remarkable upward momentum in the closing months of the year, powering all three major indexes to monthly, quarterly and annual gains.
For the year, all three posted double-digit growth.
«On January of this year, 363 days ago, if I said I think the S&P is going to gain more than 20% in 2023, you would have put me into the slightly nutty category,» said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president at Wealthspire Advisors, in New York.
«There's certainly reason to be pleased this year and there's reason for optimism going into 2024.»
Even so, all three major U.S. stock indexes ended the session lower.
«There's really no reason for today's small sell-off,» Pursche added.
«There's no news that's driving it.»
«I would ascribe it to last-minute portfolio changes, profit taking as we enter the new year, and perhaps some rebalancing.»
Smallcaps came to life in the last months of the year, with the Russell 2000 roaring back from a year-to-date loss of 7.1% as of late October to end the year with a 15.1% annual gain.
The S&P 500, the Dow and the Nasdaq have booked nine consecutive weekly gains — the longest weekly winning streak for the S&P 500 since January 2004, and the longest for the Dow and the Nasdaq since early 2019.
The S&P 500 is still drifting within 1% of its record closing high reached on Jan. 3 2022.
Closing above that level — 4,796.56 — would confirm the bellwether index entered a bull market when it touched its bear market trough in October 2022.
It was a tumultuous year marked by the U.S. banking crisis in March, an
