The S&P 500 soared in 2024 despite a weak fourth quarter

This is a report from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open provides investors with information on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

Celebration of the end of the year in the markets
US stocks ended the last trading day of 2024 on a negative note, but they finished the year above. Asia-Pacific markets fell on Tuesdaywhich was a shortened trading day for many exchanges. China’s CSI 300 ended the year 15% higher, snapping a three-year losing streak, although it lost 1.6% on the day.

Bitcoin at $200,000 in 2024?
Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 level in December 2024 after Donald Trump, who is largely seen as friendly to the cryptocurrency, won the US election. Industry executives and crypto investors see strong momentum for Bitcoin, and some are predicting that it will continue will rise to $200,000 this year.

Nippon Steel offers the US a veto
The fate of Nippon Steel Company it is planned to purchase c US Steel it remains for US President Joe Biden, who must make a decision by January 7. In an attempt to convince Biden, Nippon Steel offered to make concessions to the US government veto power over any reductions in US Steel’s production capacityReuters reports citing a source familiar with the matter.

Alibaba has reduced the price of the AI ​​model
Alibaba there is reducing the prices of its visual language model to 85%, the company announced on Tuesday. The model, called Qwen-VL, is designed to understand both text and images. Alibaba’s move signals increased competition between Chinese tech giants as they seek to gain market share for their artificial intelligence products.

(PRO) Best and Smallest Stocks of 2024
The Magnificent Seven pushed the basket of shares S&P 500 forward through most of 2024. But only one of them reached the podium in the three most effective actions year – and did not even win a gold medal. The three worst stockssurprisingly included a market leader in technology.

A brilliant start, a weak middle, and then a flat shot – that was the trajectory S&P 500 last year.

The broad index entered the gates from the very beginning of 2024. In the first quarter, it jumped by 10.2%. That’s more than 10 times the average increase since 2000, CNBC’s Robert Ham noted.

This impulse could not be sustained. The S&P added 3.9% and 5.5% in the second and third quarters of 2024, respectively. In any other year, investors might not have been disappointed by these numbers. But the index’s first-quarter performance set the bar so high that subsequent quarters seemed to pale in comparison.

In the last quarter of 2024, the S&P gained only 1.9%. To make matters worse, someone was being naughty by preventing Santa from having his typical year-end stock market rally.

Of course, profit is profit. But it’s hard not to be disappointed when looking back at the high we started 2024 with, or comparing it to the average fourth-quarter growth of 4.2% since 2000.

Still, a relatively weak end to the year wasn’t enough to derail the S&P’s gains in 2024. In 2024, the index grew by 23.31% — a notch 57 record is closed on this path — after growing by 24.2% in 2023.

AI stocks accounted for most of the gains in 2024. Actions Nvidia grew by 171%, and Broadcomwhich one portfolio manager is called “the next Nvidia in terms of potential to outperform”, jumped 108%.

But this year, markets expect uncertainty. Investors will have to contend with the incoming Trump administration’s policies, possibly higher-than-expected interest rates for the year, which in turn keep Treasury yields higher, among other headwinds.

The beginning of 2025 can be difficult. Fasten.

— CNBC’s Robert Humm, Jesse Pound, Gina Francola and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.