Stocks Drop at the End of a Winning Year

Stock indexes closed lower on Wall Street on the final day of another record-setting year.

• The S&P 500 fell 25.31 points, or 0.4%, to 5,881.63, but still managed to rack up a gain of 23.3% for the year, its second straight year with gains of more than 20%. The last time it had back-to-back yearly gains that big was 1998.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 29.51 points, or 0.1%, to 42,544.22
• The Nasdaq composite fell 175.99 points, or 0.9%, to 19,310.79.

Big Tech stocks led this year's rally, pushing the Nasdaq composite to a yearly gain of 28.6%, the AP reports. The Dow, which is far less weighted with tech, rose 12.9% for the year.

About 60% of the stocks in the S&P 500 fell. Technology stocks were the biggest weights on the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, fell 2.3%. Apple was down 0.7%, and Advanced Micro Devices gave up 1.4%. Gains in energy stocks helped temper some of the declines. Exxon Mobil rose 1.7% and Chevron gained 1.2%. VeriSign was up 0.9% after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed it had increased its stake in the internet domain registry services company.

US markets' stellar run this year has been driven by a growing economy, solid consumer spending, and a strong jobs market. Skyrocketing prices for companies in the artificial-intelligence business, such as Nvidia and Super Micro Computer, helped lift the market to new heights. Solid corporate earnings growth also helped. Another boost for the market: The economy avoided a recession that many on Wall Street worried was inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked its main interest rate to a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy to beat high inflation. This year's market rally went beyond stocks. Bitcoin, which was below $17,000 just two years ago, climbed above $100,000 for the first time. And gold also shattered records on its way to a more than 26% gain for the year.