Wall Street closed near record highs on Friday in a low-volume session on the final day of business in 2021, which marks the second year of recovery from a global pandemic.
The top three U.S. stock indices made weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly gains, posting their biggest three-year advance since 1999.
The results of the S&P 500 companies beat analysts’ estimates and showed year-on-year growth in the first three quarters of the year of 52.8%, 96.3% and 42.6%, respectively, according to Refinitiv, which forecasts annual growth in earnings from the S&P 500. 22.3% in the fourth quarter.
Energy, real estate and microchips, sectors associated with the economic recovery and boom in demand, were among the best performers in 2021. Tech stocks and tech-linked megacaps, which outperformed the market in Overall in the first year of the global health crisis, they lagged behind as the economy slowly recovered from restrictive measures and vaccination campaigns unfolded.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which burst onto the scene in early 2020 and caused the steepest and fastest economic contraction in history, continues to persist and pressure travel-related stocks. The S&P 1500 Airlines Index ended 2021 as one of the few losing sectors for the year with a 2 percent drop.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.16% to 36,338.30 units; the expanded S&P 500 index lost 0.26%, to 4,766.18 points; and the NASDAQ Composite was down .61% to 15,644.97 whole.
In the total for the year, the S&P 500 soared 26.89%, the NASDAQ Composite technology 21.39% and the Dow Jones 18.73%.
The companies that registered the most profits in the whole of last year were Moderna, whose shares rose 143.11%, followed by Ford Motor with an increase of 136.29% and Nvidia that rose 125.29 percent.
The worst performers were Alibaba (-48.96%) and Zoom Video (-45.48%).