NEW YORK -With December so far delivering Scrooge-like returns in an otherwise stellar year for U.S. stocks, investors hope the tail end of 2024 offers some holiday cheer, but warn of potential headwinds.is up more than 24% for 2024, even after a major stumble this week, and Wall Street has historically often enjoyed a strong annual close.
Another worry for stocks as the year winds down is rising Treasury yields, said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at asset manager Miller Tabak. Benchmark 10-year yields hit 4.55% on Thursday following the Fed meeting, their highest level in over six months. Still, this week's pullback could be positive because it eliminated some of the frothy sentiment in equities,"setting up the market for a rebound," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services."If there is further follow through on the downside, that could be a little bit more dangerous to the bullish trend."
"It's been a strong year for the market, and you can make an argument that we kind of got the year-end rally in November instead of December," Carlson said.) shares are up 36% for December after the company this month predicted booming demand for its custom artificial intelligence chips, pushing its market value over $1 trillion.