Yearly gains best in 3 years
US stocks spent the final session of the year in a steady retreat on Friday, 30 December 2016. U.S. stocks fell in the final trading day of the year on Friday as investors took profits on some of 2016's high flying sectors, although major indexes posted strong annual gains and the Dow closed out its best year since 2013.
The day's losses were broad, with all but two of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ending lower. However, trading volume was light, as is typical for the final trading week of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 57.18 points to 19,762.60, a decline of 0.3%. The S&P 500 fell 10.43 points, or 0.5%, to 2,238.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 48.97 points to 5,383.12, a drop of 0.9%.
The Nasdaq was pressured by a drop in technology shares, which was the weakest sector on the day though it outperformed the broader market over the year.
Friday marks not only the final trading day of the year, but also of the week, the month, and the quarter.
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Dow gained 13.4% for the year 2016. The S&P 500 2016 gain stood at 9.5%. The Nasdaq underperformed, trimming this year's advance to 7.5%.
Bullion prices ended lower at Comex on Friday, 30 December 2016. Gold futures moved in and out of positive territory on Friday, risking a fifth straight session gain, but still on track to snap what had been the longest weekly losing streak in more than 12 years.
Gold futures for February delivery fell $1.00, or 0.1%, to $1,157.10 an ounce, but had earlier traded up to $1,164.
Gold futures fell on Friday but snapped what had been the longest weekly losing streak in more than 12 years with a 1.5% weekly gain. Gold logged a 9% gain for all of 2016, owed to its early-year move. Gold is off more than 15% from its 2016 best, which was the settle high of $1,364.90 hit 6 July 2016. March silver was down 15 cents, or 0.9%, at $16.08 an ounce after trading at its highest in about two weeks. For the month, silver fell a roughly 2%. Silver gained 17% for the year.
Crude oil futures saw modest losses in the final trading session of 2016 on Friday, 30 December 2016 but scored the biggest yearly rise since 2009.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in February fell 5 cents, or 0.1%, to close at $53.72 a barrel. On a most-active basis, the U.S. benchmark futures contract saw a nearly 45% calendar-year rise and a more-than-8% jump in December 2016. The rise has been fueled in part by expectations members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major producers will abide by an agreement to curb output. The annual rise was the largest in 7 years.
Friday's pullback brought the S&P 500 back into the middle of its post-election range with nine out of eleven sectors finishing in the red. Heavily-weighted technology and consumer discretionary spent the day at the bottom of the leaderboard, dragging most other sectors down.
The U.S. Dollar Index shed 0.4% to lock in its second consecutive decline, but still ended the year just below a 14-year high.
Market participants got an early taste of the strong dollar's impact on Friday on the manufacturing sector as the December Chicago PMI declined to 54.6 from 57.6 in November. The drop was paced by New Orders, which fell to 56.5 from 63.2 in November.
The bulk of the day saw below-average trading volume, but there was a surge of activity into the close, likely associated with end-of-month and end-of-quarter flows from large investors. As a result, more than a billion shares changed hands at the NYSE floor.
Treasuries ended the abbreviated session on a higher note. The 10-yr yield slipped three basis points to 2.44%, ending 20 basis points below its mid-December high.
Bond and equity markets will be closed on Monday and Tuesday's economic data will be limited to the 10:00 ET release of November Construction Spending (consensus 0.5%) and December ISM Index (consensus 53.6).
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