Day Traders Diary

12/30/24

The major averages took a hit again as Wall Steet limps into the New Year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 418 points, or 0.97% after dropping over 700 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 fell 63 points or 1.07% while the Nasdaq Composite slid 235 points or 1.19%.

No real catalyst for Monday's decline other than light volume and year end rotation and adjustments. Tech darling, Nvidia was higher today, but that was about it. The rest of the tech space took it on the chin with Tesla and Palantir down 3% and 2% respectively.

About the only sector higher today was energy with the price of oil up 52 cents or 0.74%. Devon and Diamondback Energy were up over 1.5% on the day.  

No Santa Clause rally this year as the S&P 500 has now fallen more than 1% in each of the past two trading sessions. This is the first time that has happened twice in the last five business days of the year since at least 1952, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Even with the recent pullback, the S&P 500 and Dow are up about 24% and 13%, respectively, on track for the best year since 2021. The Nasdaq is higher by nearly 30%, on pace for its longest quarterly winning streak since 2021.