© Archyde.com/ANDREW KELLY
File photo. A pre-Christmas trader at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York, USA, December 23, 2021. REUTERS / Andrew Kelly
By Stephen Culp and Echo Wang
NEW YORK, Dec 31 (Archyde.com) – Wall Street closed near record highs on Friday in a low-volume day on the final business day of 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 earnings growth of 22.3% in the fourth quarter.
* Energy, real estate and microchips, sectors associated with economic recovery and booming demand, were among the best performers in 2021.
* Tech stocks and tech-linked megacaps, which outperformed the broader market in the first year of the global health crisis, lagged behind as the economy slowly recovered from restrictive measures and broke down. they deployed the vaccination campaigns.
* 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% drop.
* According to preliminary closing data, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 63.07 points, or 0.17%, to 36,335.01 units; the S&P 500 index lost 12.63 points, or 0.26%, to 4,766.10 units; and the Nasdaq Composite fell 94.93 points, or 0.6%, to 15,646.63 points.
* According to the preliminary close, in December the S&P 500 rose 4.36%, the Dow Jones 5.38% and the Nasdaq 0.69%. For the quarter, the S&P 500 gained 10.65%, the Dow 7.37% and the Nasdaq 8.28%.
* For the year as a whole, the S&P 500 jumped 26.89%, the Dow 18.73% and the Nasdaq 21.39%.
(Edited in Spanish by Javier Leira)