“With December bringing Scrooge-like returns, investors are hoping the end of 2024 will bring some holiday cheer, but warn of potential headwinds.”, — write: epravda.com.ua
With December bringing Scrooge-like returns, investors are hoping the end of 2024 will bring some holiday cheer, but warn of potential headwinds. This is reported by Reuters. The S&P 500 is up more than 24% in 2024, even after this week’s big drop, and Wall Street has historically often enjoyed strong annual closes. Since 1969, the last five trading days of the year combined with the first two days of the following year have seen the S&P 500 gain an average of 1.3% — a period known as the “Santa Claus Rally,” according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac. But this year there are signs that Santa may disappoint. The S&P 500 suffered its biggest one-day drop since August on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve caught investors by surprise by announcing fewer than expected interest rate cuts in 2025. The market also looks less healthy beneath the surface, with eight of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors in negative territory in December, while the peer S&P 500, a proxy for average stocks, fell 7%. The Santa Clause period, combined with the following first five trading days of January and January as a whole, is a harbinger of the year: When these three indicators are positive, the year has ended higher more than 90% of the time over the past 50 years, according to according to the Almanac. A number of mega-company stocks performed well in December, including Tesla and Alphabet, which rose 22% and more than 13%, respectively, this month. Shares of Broadcom surged 36% in December after the company this month predicted booming demand for its proprietary artificial intelligence chips, pushing its market value above $1 trillion. But such profits are becoming increasingly rare. As of Wednesday, decliners outnumbered gainers on the S&P 500 for 13 straight sessions, the longest such losing streak since 2012, according to LSEG data.