S&P 500 ekes out meager gains, flirts with bull market confirmation
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[December 29, 2023] By
Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) -The S&P 500 closed nominally higher on Thursday,
retracing early gains just before the closing bell on the penultimate
trading day of 2023.
The benchmark index concluded the light volume session just 0.3% shy of
its record closing high, reached on Jan. 3, 2022.
The blue-chip Dow ended modestly green, notching its second record-high
closing level in a row, while the Nasdaq finished a hair lower. All
three indexes remained on track for monthly, quarterly, and annual
gains.
"This is one of the best end-of-year rallies we've ever seen and a lot
of this rally happened before the Fed pivot in the middle of December,"
said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha.
"It’s a nice reminder of how far we've come from the depths of the bear
market last year and reminder to investors that dark clouds happen, but
the sun always comes out again," Detrick added.
Had the S&P 500 settled above its previous all-time closing high, it
would have confirmed that the benchmark index entered a bull market when
it reached the bear market closing trough in October 2022.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Dec/29/images/ads/current/peasley_sda_HFH_2023.png)
"Reaching new highs after two years could be a subtle sign that economic
strength could be in the cards for 2024," Detrick said.
Data released early in the day, including jobless claims, pending home
sales and preliminary trade/inventories all painted a picture of a
softening but resilient economy.
This scenario has helped cement bets the U.S. Federal Reserve might cut
its policy rate sooner than expected and could pull off a soft landing
by avoiding recession.
At last glance, financial markets have priced in a 74.1% probability
policymakers will cut the Fed funds target rate by 25 basis points in
March, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
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A screen displays the Dow Jones Industrial Average after the closing
bell on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York
City, U.S., December 13, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Dec/29/images/ads/current/preowned%20of%20the%20week%20(1).jpg)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.58 points, or 0.14%, to
37,710.1, the S&P 500 gained 1.77 points, or 0.04%, to 4,783.35 and
the Nasdaq Composite dropped 4.04 points, or 0.03%, to 15,095.14.
Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, utilities had the largest
percentage gain. Energy shares were down the most, weighed by
sagging crude prices.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies, including Alibaba Holdings,
PDD Holdings and JD.Com Inc advanced between 0.6% and 2.7% as
China's blue-chip stocks staged their biggest jump in five months.
CytoSorbents slid 33.4% after the company's device aimed at reducing
bleeding during surgery failed meet the main goal of a study.
Boeing dipped 0.7% after the planemaker urged airlines to inspect
newer 737 MAX airplanes for a possible loose bolt in the rudder
control system.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.00-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.08-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 49 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq
Composite recorded 141 new highs and 37 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 9.46 billion shares, compared with the
12.57 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading
days.
(Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Shubham Batra
and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)
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