Stocks rallied throughout the market, many of which were buoyed by an ongoing rally marking the end of 2023.
As of closing on Tuesday, December 26th, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by around 150 points (0.4%), as was the benchmark S&P 500. The Nasdaq Composite which primarily deals with the tech sector closed the day up by 0.5%.
The three primary indices all posed double-digit growth throughout this year. Thanks to a flurry of activity in the tech sector, the Nasdaq led the pack and was up by 40%. Meanwhile, the S&P came close to its historic high but is still 30 points short of its all-time high of 4,796.56 which it hit early last year.
This upsurge has also been attributed to increasing optimism in the financial sector as the US Federal Reserve’s constant rate hikes appear to be slowing down – a surefire indicator that it has gained headway in the fight to curb inflation.
From Pessimism to [Cautious] Optimism
2023 was initially characterized by doom and gloom in the face of mounting prices, as well as the adverse impact of the constant increase in interest rates implemented by the Fed nearly every week.
However, as the year draws to a close, the Fed has begun to make noises about reducing interest rates as inflation has decreased significantly over the past few weeks, and the US job market remains incredibly resilient despite naysayers’ predictions that job growth would be hampered by volatile interest rates. This has been proven wrong as US unemployment still stands at under 4%.
As stated earlier, most of the growth in the markets was propelled by the success of several major players in the tech industry, including titans Apple and Microsoft. Social media giant Meta also saw its share price grow threefold, while chipmaker Nvidia made the most of the booming AI scene, seeing how its share price ballooned by almost 240%.
