Equity Indexes Wrap: ༒Year-End Rally Gives Out at the Finish Line; Tech Leads Indexes Higher for the Year

The Dow

Shares of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) rose 0.3% after it said it had agreed to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:sell its Brazil unit to an unidentified private buyer. 

Salesforce (CRM) slipꦰped 0.9%, but it was still the index’s beꦆst-performing stock this year, rising nearly 95%.

Other winners this year: Intel (INTC), up 86%; Microsoft (MSFT), up 55%; and Boeing (BA), which rose 35%.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) inched up 0.1% even as a New Jersey judge ruled investors can pursue a class action lawsuit against the company over its talc products and subsequent legal troubles. The company, which 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:spun off its consumer health unit this year, was one of the Dow’s worst ꦆlaggards. Its stock lost about 11% of its value in 2023.

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) led the index’s losers, both today and this year. It fell 1.8% Friday to finish the 31% lowerꩲ.

Chevron (CVX) and 3M (MMM) also weighed on the index, falling 16% and 10%, respectively.

The S&P 500

Boston Scientific (BSX) led the index. It gained 2.7% after it said it expects the FDA to approve its Farapul💎se PFA System by the end of Q1 next year.

Nvidia (NVDA) finished Friday flat but cemented its position as the index’s best-perforಞming stock this year. Shares soared more than 230% to make 🐼it America’s fifth-most-valuable company. 

Meta Platforms (META) fell 1.🍷2% Friday but still finished the year up 18🎀8%. 

Rounding out the five biggest winners: Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), up 156%; Builders FirstSource (BLDR), up 153%; and Uber (UBER), up 143%.

Albemarle (ALB) led the index lower Friday, falling 3.3%. Its 2023 return of -34% puts i😼t among the index’s worst performers this year.&nbsౠp;

But the unfortunate distinction of the biggest drag goes to Enphase Energy (ENPH), which fell more than 50% this year. It was just one of several solar stocks to get pummeled by rising inte🅘rest rates and flagging demand this year. 

FMC Corp. (FMC) and Dollar General (DG) trailed close behind, losing 49% and 45%, respect🎉ively. 

Giants Pfizer (PFE), down 44%, and Estée Lauder (EL), down 43%, struggled with unique post-pandemic challenges: What to do with 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:all those vaccines no one’s getting? How to thrive in 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:a sluggish Chinese economy?

The Nasdaq 100

T-Mobile (TMUS) gained 0.9% amid reports it would start fining ཧthird-party accounts $2,000 for sending illegal spam message🍎s.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) fe🌌ll 2.7% after it acquired Turkish stre💞amer BluTV for an undisclosed sum.

Semiconductors and cybersecurity dominated the index this year. Nvidia led the pack, but competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) added nearly 124% this year and Broadcom (AVGO) gained 98%. 

Crowdstrike Holdings (CRWD) was the index’s best-performing cybersecurity stock with its 137% gain. It was followed by Palo Alto Networks (PANW), up 108%, and ZScaler (ZS), up 93%.

The index’s laggards: healthcare and grocery store staples. Moderna (MRNA) led the index’s losers, falling 45% this year. DNA sequencing company Illumina (ILMN), which 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:spent the year fighting regulators over its 2021 GRAIL acquisition, fell 32%.

Kraft Heinz (KHC) fell 9% from the beginning of the year, while Keurig Dr. Pepper (KDP) and PepsiCo (PEP) each dropped about 6%.

Boston Scientific St♔ock Jumps to Record, Leading S&P 500

Boston Scientific (BSX) was the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 Friday after the medical device maker said it expects the FDA to approve its Farapulse Pulse Field Ablation (PFA) System by the end of the first quarter next year. 

The company on Th𓃲ursday evening also announced a clinical trial of Farapulse PFA as a first-line treatment of persistent atrial fibrillation (AFib). The company said outcomes from the trial would be compared to the outcomes of treating AFib with anti-arrhythmic drugs. 

“Patients🐼 are often treated with AADs as frontline therapy for heart rhythm maintenance, ღthough some can experience adverse effects and limited efficacy. Cardiac ablation is a potential alternative interventional strategy for those living with persistent AF,” the company said in a statement. 

The Farapulse PFA System uses an electrical pulse to create small💃 scars that block the electrical signals that cause an irregular heartbeat. The treatment differs from thermal ablation devices, which use either heat or extreme cold to create scars.

Sha𓃲res of Boston Scientific jumped 3% Friday, putting the stock at an all-time high of about $58. The stock has gained about 25% this🐎 year.

Treasury Yields Tick Hiꦓgher to Close Rollercoaster of a Ye𓃲ar

Treasury yields inched higher in a shortened trading session Friday, capping off a wild year for the bond ಞmar⛦ket.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury settled at 3.88% Friday, exactly where it ended last year. That's welcome news for bond investors, who've been 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:burned by rising yields for two straight years. (Bond yield👍s move 🐎inversely to their prices.)

Bond yields climbed throughout the year as the Federal Reserve raised the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:federal funds rate, the primary mechanism through which the central bank controls interest rates across the economy. Rising Treasury yields, in turn, sent rates on everything from 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:mortgages to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:car loans surging.

Then, in November, the Fed suggested it was 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:taking its foot off the gas, and yields fell as fast as they had risen.

Organized Labor’s Wins in 2023 May Spur More St🧸ri🔴kes in 2024

Organized labor had its most active year in two decades, with big wins by auto workers, Teamsters, and screen actors likely to inspire 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:unionized workers to continue hওolding management’s feet to the fire in 2024.

“I suspect the♔ success of the UAW, Teamsters, etc. will lead to continued activism and the prospect of disputes if the labor market stays strong,” Harvard University labor economist Lawrence F. Katz said in an email.

Next year’s calendar of major contract expirations includes communications workers at AT&T (T) in April, Hollywood crew members in July, and dockworkers and Boeing (BA) machinists in September.

澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Read more about why the tables turned in unions' favo♚r this year and what the surge in activism could bring in 2024.

-澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Bob Simison

ꦕNvidia Introduces Slower Gaming Chip in China To Comply with New US Export Rules

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:shares were lower Friday after the semiconduc🌱tor maker introduced a slower gaming chip in China to comply with new U.S. res♈trictions on technology sales to that country.

The company released the GeForce RTX 4090D Series graphics processing unit (GPU) on its Chinese website, saying it "delivers a quantum leap in performance, efficiency, and [artificial intelligence] AI-driven graphics," and "an exceptional experience for gamers and creators."

However, the chip's performance via power draw is 5.9% lower than the model Nvidia announced last year, and the core count was also cut.

Nvidia has been the leading maker of chips for AI applications, and that’s shown in its stock price, which skyrocketed to an all-time high in May and then kept climbing. However, shares hit a speed bump in October after the company reported that the new U.S. government restrictions were taking effect immediately and would affect its products.

Still, shares have since rebounded, and even with Friday's decline of more than 1%, they continue to trade near their record high.

-澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Bill McColl

UnitedHea🥃lth Sells Its Brazilian Operations to a Private ൲Investor

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) shares were up slightly after the big health insurance provider said it has agreed to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:sell its operations in Brazil to a private investor.

Terms of the agreement and the name of the buyer were not disclosed, although an earlier report by Reuters said the purchaser was Brazilian entrepreneur Jose Seripieri Filho. The company sai🌌d it expects the traಞnsaction to close in the first half of next year.

UnitedHealth indicated in a securities filing that upon completion of the deal, it would be taking an approximately $7 billion charge, “the majority of which is non-cash and due to the cumulative impact of foreign currency translation losses.”

Shares of UnitedHealth Group hit an all-time high at the end of November before losing ground this month, but they remain🍌 in positive territory for the year.

-澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Bill McColl

Nvidia Made Headline꧅s, But T✱hese Stocks Made Investors More Money

The year belonged to Nvidia (NVDA), the chipmaker that earlier this year became 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:only the seventh U.S. company to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion. Nvidia’s share price surged 239% this year, making it the best-performing stock in the S&P 500. Trailing just behind: Meta Platforms (META), up 198%,ও vindication for investors who held on through a bumpy 2022. 

But even these leading 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Magnificent Seven stocks couldn’t outpace everyone. Here are a few of the smaller stocks that quietly led the𝓰 market this year.🐈

Carvana Co. (CVNA): The used car dealer’s shares started the year at about $4.75, a far cry from their all-time high of $361 in August 2021. This year brought bluer skies for the company, which was thought to be on the ♒verge of bankruptcy at the end of 2022. After restructuring its debt and cutting costs, the company’s stock rebounded to close at $54.91 yesterday, representing a 1,058% return. 

Affirm Holdings (AFRM): Buy now, pay later provider Affirm was flying high in 2021, trading for as much as $164 a share in October of that year. But the mood soured in 2022 and the stock sank to finish the year at $9.10. Its 2023 hasn’t made up for that disastrous year—it traded at about $48.75 on Friday—but the stock has risen 431%, making it the best-performing stock in the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Russell 1000.

Coinbase Global (COIN): The cryptocurrency exchange is just one of several crypto stocks to outpace Nvidia in 2023. Bitcoin started the year at a 2-year low of $16,500 after being pummeled by rising interest rates, waning enthusiasm among retail investors, and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:implosion of FTX, a leading exchange. Bitcoin has since surged more than 150%, bringing Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, and Bitcoin miners with it. Coinbase has gained 427% this year, while miners Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) returned 722% and 419%, respectively. 

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF): The retailer hasn’t just topped Nvidia’s performance with its 292% return, it has done so with a product far less buzzy than artificial intelligence: clothes. The company has repeatedly o𒊎utperformed Wall Street’s expectations this year as 🧸it embraced e-commerce 🔯and expanded its offerings to appeal to a broader base of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers. 

Fisker Stock Soars on Surging EV Deliveries

Shares of Fisker (FSR) jumped Friday morning after the company said it had delivered 4,700 vehicles in 2023, it🍷s first year of making deliveries. 

The company delivered more than 3,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, a 300% increase from the 1,097 cars it shipped in Q3, according to a business update released Friday. The company also said it had delivered its first vehicles൩ in Canada in the fourth quarter and handed over its first Fisker Ocean Sport to a buyer in the U.K.

The company has 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:scaled back its ambitions significantly throughout 2023. At the beginning of the year, it said it would make more than 42,000 cars. According to Friday's update, the company produced 10,142 ve🌺hicles in the year, in line with the guidanc🍎e it provided at the beginning of December.

Shares were up 25% at about $1.8𓄧5 on Friday morning. Still, they’ve lost nearly 75% of their value this year and are 93% off their all-time high.

Stocks Making the Biggest Moves Premarket

Gains: 

• Fisker Inc. (FSR): Shares of the electric vehicle maker jumped 11% after it said it had delivered 4,700 vehicles in 2023 and increased deliveries by 300% in the fourth quarter compared with Q3. 
• JD.com Inc. (JD): Shares of the Chinese e-commerce company rose 1% after it won an antitrust lawsuit against rival Alibaba. A Chinese court fined Alibaba 1 billion yuan ($140 million) for exploiting its market dominance to the detriment of JD.com. 
• Nvidia (NVDA): Shares of the chipmaker inched up 0.3% following reports the company was set to release the Nvidia RTX 4090D, a new gaming chip with reduced processing power designed specifically to comply with restrictions on the export of advanced microchips to China.
• UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH): Shares rose about 0.3% after the insurance company said it had agreed to sell its Brazil unit to a private investor for an undisclosed sum. 
  

Losses:

• Lyft Inc. (LYFT): Shares of the ride-hailing company fell 3% after Nomura downgraded the stock to “reduce” from “neutral,” citing limited growth potential, shrinking market share, and low profitability. 
• Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER): Shares of Lyft’s competitor fell about 1% after Nomura downgraded the stock to “neutral” from “buy.”

Stock Futures 🍃Little Changed Heading Into Last Session of 2023

Futures 🐎contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average wer♏e effectively flat in premarket trading.

S&P 500 futures were also unchanged.

Nasdaq 100 futures gave up earlier gainᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚs to trade about 0.1% lower a little over an hour before markets opened.