S&P 500 rises in 2024 despite weak fourth quarter

This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors the latest news wherever they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe Here.

Year-end celebrations in the markets
U.S. stocks ended the last trading day of 2024 in the red, but no finished the year higher. Asia-Pacific markets fell on Tuesdaywhich was a shortened trading day for many exchanges. China's CSI 300 index ended the year up 15%, breaking a three-year losing streak, although it lost 1.6% on the day.

Bitcoin at $200,000 in 2024?
Bitcoin it crossed the $100,000 mark in December 2024, after Donald Trump, largely perceived as cryptocurrency-friendly, won the US election. Industry executives and cryptocurrency investors see strong momentum for bitcoin, with several predicting this will happen increase to $200,000 this year.

Nippon Steel offers US veto power
Moose Nippon Steel planned takeover American steel depends on US President Joe Biden, who has until January 7 to make a decision. In an attempt to convince Biden, Nippon Steel offered assistance to the US government veto power over any cuts in U.S. Steel production capacityreported Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter.

Alibaba price reduction of AI model
Alibaba Is by cutting prices on its visual language model by as much as 85%, the company announced on Tuesday. The model, called Qwen-VL, aims to understand both text and images. Alibaba's move signals growing competition among Chinese tech giants aiming to gain market share for their artificial intelligence products.

(PRO) 2024 Stock Tops and Bottoms
A basket of Magnificent Seven shares drove the stock market S&P500 forward for most of 2024. However, only one of them made it to the podium in the competition three best-performing companies year – and didn't even win a gold medal. The three companies with the worst resultssurprisingly, it included a market leader in technology.

A brilliant start, a sagging middle and then a flat thud – that was the trajectory S&P500 last year.

The broad base index scored at the beginning of 2024. In the first quarter of the year it increased by 10.2%. That's more than 10 times the average gain since 2000, noted CNBC's Robert Hum.

This pace could not be maintained. S&P added 3.9% and 5.5%, respectively, in the second and third quarters of 2024. In any other year, investors would not have been disappointed by these numbers. However, the index's first-quarter performance set the bar so high that subsequent quarters seemed to pale in comparison.

In the final quarter of 2024, the S&P lost just 1.9%. To make matters worse, someone there was rude and prevented Santa from holding his typical end-of-year rally at the Stock Exchange.

Of course profit is profit. But it's hard not to feel disappointed when we look back at the peak we started 2024 with, or compare it to the average fourth-quarter growth of 4.2% since 2000.

That said, a relatively weak end to the year wasn't enough to derail the S&P's rally in 2024. The index is up 23.31% in 2024, putting it at 57 records closed along the way – after growing by 24.2% in 2023

Artificial intelligence stocks accounted for much of the gains in 2024. Shares Nvidia increased by 171% while Broadcomwhich portfolio manager called “next Nvidia in terms of performance potential” increased by 108%.

However, uncertainty awaits the markets this year. Investors will have to grapple with the policies of the incoming Trump administration, including possible higher-than-expected interest rates this year, which in turn, among other things, keeps Treasury yields high.

The start of 2025 may be bumpy. Fasten your seat belts.

— CNBC's Robert Hum, Jesse Pound, Gina Francolla and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.