Stock Market Ends Year With A Bang, But 2024 Will Be Tougher

The final stages of 2023 couldn’t have gone much better for the stock market.

The prolonged year-end rally is largely down to shifting interest-rate expectations for 2024 after the Federal Reserve opened the door to rate cuts at its final meeting of the year.

The S&P 500 is very close to a record high and on track for its ninth consecutive week of gains. That’s the longest winning streak since January 2004, Callum Keown reported for Barron’s Daily.

But investors are unlikely to forget the part played by artificial intelligence (AI) and the megacap tech stocks earlier in the year.

Another key feature of 2023 was the recession that never came. The US economy remained remarkably resilient, largely due to the strength of consumer spending.

Three sectors have stood out and enjoyed a bumper 2023. Unsurprisingly, the information technology sector is the best performing—up 57%—helped by Nvidia’s extraordinary 239% rally and strong gains for Apple, Microsoft, and other tech names. It’s the sector’s best year since 2009.

The communication services sector is on track for its best-ever year, thanks to notable contributions from Meta Platforms, which has climbed 198% in its so-called year of efficiency, and Alphabet. Another key feature of 2023 was the recession that never came.

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