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U.S. stocks finish year with record gain over 16 percent

The last trading day of 2020 recorded the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 both closing at record highs. Meanwhile the Nasdaq also showed great gains of 43 percent in 2020, its best year since 2009.

U.S. stocks finished 2020 with a gain of more than 16 percent after a technology sector-led rally pulled Wall Street back from a brief bear market to set a record high in defiance of pandemic, recession and political upheaval.

The Nasdaq Composite, dominated by tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon, gained more than 44 percent this year to record its best performance since 2009. This is credited to a change of work and consumer spending moving online.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 both closed at record highs, while the Nasdaq had its best year since 2009, gaining 43 percent.

The S&P 500 gained 16 percent in 2020, while the Dow gained 7 percent.

The S&P 500’s 16.3 per cent annual gain compared with an average 11.8 per cent over the previous decade. It has now recorded a positive year in 14 out of the first 21 years of the century.

Activity in New York was muted on the last trading session of 2020 on Thursday, with many investors taking time off in the week between Christmas and New Year. The S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent, while Nasdaq was 0.1 per cent higher.