The US stocks ended mostly higher Thursday as a strong 2023 nears its end on the Wall Street. The S&P 500 index traded near its all-time closing high of ~4,796.56 levels for 2nd consecutive day. Benchmark average saw an increase of just ~0.04% Thursday, with Dow Jones Industrial Average adding ~0.14%, or about 50 points. However, tech-heavyweight Nasdaq Composite slipped marginally below its flat line. Despite this, Nasdaq saw an increase of over ~44% this year. If this index holds its momentum until the final day of trading in 2023, it should be the major average’s strongest year since 2003.
Among 11 major sectors of S&P 500 index, utilities saw the largest percentage gain, with Energy shares falling the most as a result of fluctuating crude oil prices.
US indexes traded at record levels
Since US indexes traded at record levels, the stocks were seen amassing 9th consecutive week of gains. If S&P 500 tries another positive week, it will be considered as the longest weekly winning streak for this benchmark since the year 2004. Fresh macro-economic data exhibited that unemployment claims were modestly higher for the week ending Dec. 23. Americans were seen filing ~218,000 jobless claims, exhibiting a rise from 205,000 the week before and above 210,000 claims which analysts projected.
Apart from this economic data, there was a latest release of index for pending home sales which stayed at ~71.6 for the month of November, as per National Association of Realtors (NAR). Index reading remained lowest since it was founded in year 2001 and came in below 0.9% rise which global analysts expected.
US Federal Reserve might reduce its policy rate sooner
The US indexes traded at record levels and this momentum after 2 years might be a hint that strong economic strength might be in the cards for 2024. All the data releases, such as jobless claims, pending home sales and preliminary trade/inventories exhibited a picture of the softening but resilient economy.
This scenario has further cemented the bets that US Federal Reserve might reduce its policy rate sooner than anticipated by the economists. Therefore, the apex might be able to pull off a soft landing through the avoidance of recession.
The US listed shares of some of the Chinese companies, which includes Alibaba Holdings, PDD Holdings and JD.Com Inc all saw an increase in the range of 0.6% – 2.7%, with China’s blue-chip stocks seeing their strongest jump in ~5 months.
Read Also: