Wall Street indexes lose ground on final day of huge year

Stocks indexes closed lower on Wall Street on the final day of another record-setting year.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.4% Tuesday, but still managed to rack up a gain of 23.3% for the year, its second straight year with gains of more than 20%. The last time it had back-to-back yearly gains that big was 1998.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite lost 0.9%.

Big Tech stocks led this year’s rally, pushing the Nasdaq composite to a yearly gain of 28.6%. The Dow, which is far less weighted with tech, rose 12.9% for the year.

U.S. markets’ stellar run this year has been driven by a growing economy, solid consumer spending and a strong jobs market.

Skyrocketing prices for companies in the artificial-intelligence business, such as Nvidia and Super Micro Computer, helped lift the market to new heights.

Solid corporate earnings growth also helped. Wall Street expects companies in the S&P 500 to report broad earnings growth of more than 9% for the year, according to FactSet. The final figures will be tallied following fourth-quarter reports that start in a few weeks.

Another boost for the market: The economy avoided a recession that many on Wall Street worried was inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked its main interest rate to a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy to beat high inflation.

Receding inflation, which has gotten closer to the Fed’s 2% target, helped energize Wall Street, raising hopes that the central bank would deliver multiple interest rate cuts into next year, which would ease borrowing costs and fuel more economic growth.

Still, after three interest rate cuts in 2024, the Fed has signaled a more cautious approach heading into 2025 with inflation remaining sticky as the country prepares for President-elect Donald Trump to transition into the White House. Trump’s threats to hike tariffs on imported goods have raised anxiety that inflation could be reignited as companies pass along the higher costs from tariffs.

This year’s market rally went beyond stocks. Bitcoin, which was below $17,000 just two years ago, climbed above $100,000 for the first time. And gold also shattered records on its way to a more than 26% gain for the year.

Markets will be closed on Wednesday for the New Year’s Day holiday. On Thursday, investors will get an updated snapshot of U.S. construction spending for November. On Friday, Wall Street will receive an update on manufacturing for December.

Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will close their equity and options markets on Jan. 9 in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter, continuing a long-held Wall Street tradition in mourning the nation’s leaders.

The 39th U.S. president and global humanitarian died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old.