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

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End of year celebrations for markets
US stocks ended the last trading day of 2024 lower, but… He finished the year higher. Asia Pacific markets It fell on TuesdayWhich was a shortened trading day for many stock exchanges. China's CSI 300 index ended the year up 15%, ending a three-year losing streak, despite losing 1.6% during the day.

Bitcoin price $200,000 in 2024?
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Nippon Steel Company offers the United States veto power.
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Artificial intelligence model price cut by Alibaba
Alibaba He is Cut prices on the visual language model By up to 85%, the company announced on Tuesday. The model, called Qwen-VL, is designed to understand text and images. Alibaba's move signals growing competition between Chinese tech giants as they aim to gain market share for their AI products.

(PRO) Top and bottom stocks for 2024
It has fueled the wonderful basket of seven stocks Standard & Poor's 500 Forward for most of 2024. But only one of them reached the podium in Three top-performing stocks year – and he didn't even win a gold medal. the The three worst performing stocksSurprisingly, it included a market leader in technology.

A great start, a flabby middle and then a flat stroke – this was the track Standard & Poor's 500 last year.

The broad-based index has burst through the gates since the start of 2024. In the first quarter of the year, it jumped 10.2%. That's more than 10 times the average gain since 2000, CNBC's Robert Hom noted.

This momentum cannot be maintained. The S&P added 3.9% and 5.5% in the second and third quarters, respectively, of 2024. In any other year, investors might not have been disappointed by these numbers. But the index's performance in the first quarter raised expectations to such an extent that subsequent quarters seemed dull in comparison.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the S&P advanced just 1.9%. To make matters worse, someone was naughty, preventing Santa from conducting his usual end-of-year rally on the stock market.

Of course, a win is a win. But it's hard not to be disappointed when looking at the rally we're starting 2024 with, or when comparing it to the average fourth-quarter gain of 4.2% since 2000.

However, the relatively weak end of the year was not enough to derail the S&P's rise in 2024. The index rose 23.31% in 2024 – recording… 57 Close the record All the way – after a 24.2% rise in 2023.

Artificial intelligence stocks were behind much of 2024's gains. Stocks Nvidia It increased by 171%, while Broadcomwhich is a single portfolio manager Named “Nvidia's next in terms of potential outperformance,” jumped 108%.

But doubts await the markets this year. Investors will have to contend with the policies of the incoming Trump administration, and perhaps higher-than-expected interest rates for this year, which in turn keep Treasury yields higher, among other headwinds.

The beginning of 2025 may be bumpy. Belt in.

— CNBC's Robert Hom, Jesse Pound, Gina Francola and Samantha Sobin contributed to this report.