US stock indices end strong year with slight declines; Nasdaq takes lead role

<p>The major US stock indices could not keep the momentum going and is ending the day and the year with a down day. The declines today, however, were not large enough to close the week lower. As a result, the major indices are ending higher for the 9th consecutive week to end a strong year for US indices.</p><p>The closing levels for the day are showing:</p><ul><li>Dow Industrial Average fell -20.58 points or -0.05% or 37689.55</li><li>S&amp;P fell -13.54 points or -0.28% at 4769.82</li><li>Nasdaq fell -83.79 points or -0.56% at 15011.34</li></ul><p>The small-capRussell 2000 index fell -31.26 points ro -1.52% at 2027.07. </p><p>For the week, the major indices all closed higher for the 9th consecutive weeks:</p><ul><li>Dow rose 0.81%</li><li>S&amp;P index rose 0.32%</li><li>Nasdaq index rose 0.12%.</li></ul><p>The Russell 2000 fell -0.33% with the decline today. </p><p>For the trading year, the Nasdaq index led the way to the upside, but all three major indices rebounded from sharp declines in 2022.</p><ul><li>Dow rose 13.70% after falling -8.78% in 2022. The Dow industrial average made new all-time highs in 2023 after pushing above the 2022 high at 36952.65.</li><li>S&amp;P index rose 24.23% after falling -19.44% in 2022. The S&amp;P got within 3 points of the all-time high close at 4796.57. The high for the year was reached this week at 4793.30 but could not extend to a new record close. .</li><li>Nasdaq index rose 43.42%, the largest gain since 43.64% in 2020. The gain over 43% is the 3rd where the Nasdaq rose between 43% and 44% since 2009. In 2010, the index rose 16.9%. IN 2021, the following year saw a gain of 21.39%</li></ul><p>The Russell 2000 rose 15.09% thanks to a strong gain starting in mid-November.</p><p>In 2023, the so-called "Magnificent 7" were grouped, named and became the major influence to the gains seen this year Those stocks consisted of Nvidia, Meta, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla. Each of those stocks experienced oversized gains for the year led by Nvidia. </p><ul><li>Nvidia, 238.87%</li><li>Meta, 194.13%</li><li>Apple, 48.22%</li><li>Alphabet, 58.32% </li><li>Microsoft, 56.80%</li><li>Amazon, 80.95%</li><li>Tesla, 101.72%</li></ul><p>Other big gainers for the year included:</p><ul><li>Palantir +167.29%</li><li>Uber, +148.97%</li><li>Crowdstrike, 142.49%</li><li>Shopify, 124.37%</li><li>Palo Alto Networks, 111.32%</li></ul><p>Some losers this year included:</p><ul><li>AMC, -82.96%</li><li>Raytheon, -46.77%</li><li>Moderna, -44.63%</li><li>Pfizer, -43.81%</li><li>Chewy, -36.27%</li></ul><p>Looking at the 11 sectors of the S&amp;P index, the Information Technology sector led the way with a gain of 56.39%. The Utilities and Energy were the worst performers in 2023. As a point of comparison, in 2022, Energy and Utilities were the best performing sectors, while Communications and Discretionary were the worst performers:</p>

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.