Stocks finished little changed to close the second to last trading day of 2023 with the S&P 500 adding 0.04% to finish at 4,783.35, getting closer to its highest closing level set in January 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.58 points, or 0.14%, to end at 37,710.10 and notch a fresh record closing high. The Nasdaq Composite inched down 0.03% to close at 15,095.14.
Corporate earnings are likely to be the driving force in 2024, Fidelity’s Jurrien Timmer said, as the market remains in a positive state due to interest rate cuts. Timmer also expressed belief that the market will continue to broaden out next year as long as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note remains between 4% and 5%.
Wells Fargo’s senior global market strategist Scott Wren told clients that the S&P 500 will struggle in the first part of 2024 due to slowing economy and interest rate uncertainty. He believes the market consensus of five to six interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve starting in March is too optimistic.
Kevin Simpson, CIO of Capital Wealth Planning, said that the valuation for Apple is too high for his team to invest in the stock at this time. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency-related stocks have made significant gains throughout the year, with Bitcoin, Coinbase, Microstrategy, CleanSpark, Iris Energy, Riot Platforms, and Marathon Digital all seeing significant increases.
Although oil prices fell 3% on Thursday, easing fears of shipping disruptions in the Red Sea, the market rally in 2023 has been led by several of the Big Tech names that trade on the Nasdaq, but one tech index under the banner of a rival exchange has held its own.
Seven of the 30 members of the Dow are on track to end December with advances of more than 10%, while Chevron and Exxon have underperformed not only the energy sector but the broader S&P500 due to the underperformance of oil in the market.
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