How the stock market defied expectations again this year, by the numbers

NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors.

U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates.

The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing. But it wasn't just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin, gold and other investments also drove higher.

Here's a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20.

Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseball's Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last year's spurt of 24.2%.

The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6.

The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected.

That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world. The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trump’s policies could also send inflation higher.

The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. It's been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trump's election. He's turned around and become a fan of crypto, and he's named a former regulator who’s seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing someone who critics said was overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

Gold's rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. It's also benefited from the Fed's cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing.

It's a favorite number of Elon Musk, and it's also a threshold that Tesla's stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share. Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musk's close relationship with Trump could benefit the company.

That's how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidia's chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidia's worth to more than $3 trillion in total.

GameStop’s gain on May 13 after Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailer’s stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the “ meme stock craze ” in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but he sold all of his holdings by late October.

That's how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation — high interest rates — would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient.

This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings — an all-time high — through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moody's. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work.

That's the total number of previously occupied homes sold nationally through the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024's home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.

FILE - A sign for a Nvidia office building is shown in Santa Clara, Calif., on Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - The Tesla Cybercab is shown at the AutoMobility LA Auto Show, on Nov. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - Construction workers frame a new single-family home on Dec. 6, 2024, in Owensboro, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

FILE - People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 26 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese Cabinet on Friday approved a record 8.7 trillion yen ($55 billion) defense budget for 2025 as Japan accelerates building up its strike-back capability with long-range cruise missiles and starts deploying Tomahawks to fortify itself against growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia.

The Cabinet-endorsed draft defense budget marks the third year of Japan’s ongoing five-year military buildup under the national security strategy adopted in 2022. The defense spending is part of the more than 115 trillion yen ($730 billion) national budget bill — also a record — that requires parliamentary approval by March to be enacted.

Japan is preparing to deploy U.S.-made Tomahawks late in the fiscal year 2025 as part of its ongoing effort to acquire strike-back capability with long-range missiles that can hit distant targets. The budget allocates 940 billion yen ($6 billion) for the so-called “standoff” defense system that also includes long-range missiles, satellite constellation and other arsenals.

The cost includes 1.8 billion yen ($11.4 million) for the purchase and addition of equipment to launch Tomahawks from an Aegis-class destroyers.

In order to reinforce its missile defense system, Japan plans to spend another 533 billion yen ($3.37 billion) that includes purchases of interceptors and a mobile reconnaissance radar to be placed on Okinawa, where more than half of about 50,000 American troops are based.

Under the defense strategy, Japan aims to eventually double its annual military spending to around 10 trillion yen ($63 billion), making it the world’s No. 3 military spender after the United States and China.

As part of the military buildup, Japan is pushing to strengthen its largely domestic defense industry by participating in joint development and promoting foreign sales.

For 2025, Japan plans to spend 314.8 billion yen ($2 billion) to build three 4,800-ton new multi-purpose compact destroyers, or FFM, that require 90 crew members, less than half the crew size currently needed as a result of automation and labor-saving design — the platform Japan wants Australia to choose for their future frigates. They are upgraded Mogami-class destroyers equipped with long-range missiles, reinforced anti-submarine warfare functions and high stealth performance, officials say.

The destroyers built by the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is one of two candidates shortlisted by Australia for its Sea 3000 frigate project and is competing against Germany’s MEKO A-200 offered by Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. Japan would jointly develop and produce frigates for the Australian Navy.

The project not only serves to further deepen cooperation between Japan and Australia but contributes to enhancing Japan’s warship capabilities, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said last month.

Japan, whose only treaty ally is the United States, has developed close ties with Australia and considers it a semi-ally as they face China’s growing threat in the region.

Japan is desperate to win the deal after it lost to France in the 2016 submarine deal with Australia. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet has already approved foreign sales of Mogami-class FFM to Australia in hopes it is selected, and set up a joint panel of government and industrial officials to step up its campaign drive to Canberra.

Japan is also jointly developing a next-generation fighter jet with Britain and Italy for deployment in 2035 and allocated 108.7 billion yen ($690 million) in the budget for the project.

As the country’s population continues to shrink, Japan focuses on unmanned weapons and artificial intelligence to make up for the declining number of servicemembers and allocated 111 billion yen ($703 million). Separately, the budget also government this week also adopted a plan to reinforce the “human base” by significantly improving salary, working conditions and support for career paths for the Self Defense Force to attract more applicants.

FILE - This photo shows an exterior view of the Defense Ministry of Japan with its sign at the main entrance in Tokyo on Sept. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)