Closing Summary: Finishing 2017 with a WhimperThe trading day is done and the year is too. The former wasn't too special, but the latter was. The major indices closed today with losses ranging from 0.5% to 0.9%, unable to live up to the bullish bias that prevailed in pre-market trading.
Today's losses, though, won't ruffle too many feathers considering the major indices registered gains this year ranging from 13.4% (Russell 2000) to 28.2% (Nasdaq Composite).
Friday's action was over early for the bulls as opening gains quickly evaporated and the indices settled back into negative territory not too far from where they closed Thursday's session.
Range-bound and featureless action predominated throughout the day as a lack of concerted leadership, a lack of corporate news, and a lack of economic data succeeded in keeping market participants disinterested for most of the session.
There was some excitement in the final hour of trading, though, which has become commonplace for this stock market.
Unlike Thursday, the final hour featured a wave of broad-based selling interest over the last 30 minutes that knocked the indices out of their range-bound stupor and left them at their worst levels of the day when the final bell of 2017 rang.
The losses were led by the health care (-0.7%), financial (-0.7%), consumer discretionary (-0.7%), and information technology (-0.6%) sectors, all of which were among the market's best-performing sectors for 2017.
There wasn't a news catalyst for the selling, which is apt to be construed as a defensive, profit-taking move in front of the three-day weekend. There is apt to be some chatter, too, that it could reflect a little defensive posturing heading into the first week of the new year when it is thought investors might be inclined to secure long-term capital gains after deferring them at the end of 2017 as the tax bill was being worked out.
We'll know soon enough, but a little selling late today won't spoil an excellent year. The S&P 500, which was up 20% for the year around 3:20 p.m. ET today, closed 2017 up 19.4% (before dividends).
- Nasdaq Composite: +28.2% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: +25.2% YTD
- S&P 500: +19.4% YTD
- S&P Midcap 400 Index: +14.7% YTD
- Russell 2000: +13.4% YTD