Wall Street’s three main benchmarks closed lower on Friday in a broad-based sell-off affecting even tech and growth stocks that had driven markets higher through much of the shortened trading week, reported Reuters on Dec 27.
Market analysts commented that it’s not surprising to see some profit-taking and rebalancing of portfolios ahead of the new year. The 45 top performers year-to-date on the S&P 500 all finished lower on Friday.
The decline ended the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s (DJIA) five-session winning streak.
The Dow fell 333.59 points, or 0.77%, to 42,992.21. The S&P 500 lost 66.75 points, or 1.11%, to finish at 5,970.84 points, while the Nasdaq Composite index dropped 298.33 points, or 1.49%, to end at 19,722.03.
Despite Friday’s declines, all three benchmarks recorded weekly gains. For the week, the S&P 500 advanced 0.7%, the Dow edged up 0.36% and the Nasdaq climbed 0.75%.
All of the 11 major S&P sectors fell. Friday’s worst performers were the three indexes which have been 2024’s leading lights: consumer discretionary, information technology and communication services. The trio dropped between 1.1% and 1.9% on the day.
For the second successive day, Tesla led decliners among the group, dropping 5%. Among the other members, Nvidia shed 2.1% while Alphabet , Amazon.com and Microsoft all slipped more than 1.5%.
Amedisys gained 4.7%, its best one-day advance since July 1, after the home health service provider and insurer UnitedHealth extended the deadline to close their US$3.3 billion merger.
Trading volumes in this holiday-shortened week have been below the average of the last six months and are likely to remain subdued until Jan 6. The next major focus for markets will be the December employment report due on Jan 10.
