United States stock indices finished lower on Friday (Saturday AEDT) as investors realised profits in the closing stages of a strong year for equities.
The technology companies that had driven the gains across 2024 also led the losses at the end of a holiday-shortened week with the ‘Magnificent 7’ stocks closing in the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 333.59 points (0.77%) to 42,992.2, the S&P 500 shed 66.75 points (1.11%) to 5,970.84 points and the Nasdaq Composite declined by 298.33 points (1.49%) to 19,722.03.
Among the Magnificent 7, the losses on the day were led by Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), which closed down 4.95%, followed by Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) 2.09%, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) 1.72%, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) 1.45% each, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) 1.32% and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) 0.59%.
The stock indices finished higher over the truncated week on the back of five consecutive up days, which in turn had reversed the impact of 10 successive declines, which marked the longest losing stretch since 1974.
But the sell-off played Scrooge to the traditional ‘Santa Claus’ rally in which shares rise over the final five sessions of December and the first two of January.
In the year to date the Dow has risen 14.4%, the S&P 25.8% and the Nasdaq 32.6%, providing investors with the opportunity to take profits and rebalance portfolios before the calendar year ends.
Another factor weighing on equities was the increase in U.S. Treasury yields with 10-year paper last trading at 4.629%, up 0.69% after touching a seven-plus month high the previous day.
In cryptocurrency news, at 9am AEDT (10pm GMT) Bitcoin was trading at US$93,025.73 (A$150,041.50), below the peak of more than $100,000 in mid-December but up about 120% in the year to date.