Stock market today: Wall Street slips in final days of a banner year for US stocks

U.S. stocks closed broadly lower Monday as a banner year on Wall Street looked set to finish on a sour note.

The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, its third straight decline. Roughly 90% of stocks within the index lost ground. On the second-to-last day of 2024, the benchmark index was still on track for its second straight yearly gain of more than 20%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%, and the Nasdaq composite ended 1.2% lower.

Big Tech companies were the heaviest weights on the market, worsening the slump. Apple and Microsoft fell 1.3%. Their pricey valuations tend to have an outsized impact on the broader market.

Elsewhere among tech stocks, Meta Platforms dropped 1.4%, Netflix slipped 0.8% and Amazon fell 1.1%.

The S&P 500's technology and communication services sectors have been the market's high flyers, notching gains of 37.1% and 39.9%, respectively, so far this year.

Boeing fell 2.3% after one of its jets skidded off a runway in South Korea, killing 179 of the 181 people aboard. South Korea is inspecting all 737-800 aircraft operated by airlines in the country.

The disaster was yet another blow for Boeing following a machinists strike, further safety problems with its troubled top-selling aircraft and a plunging stock price. Its shares have declined more than 30% this year.

Airlines that fly Boeing jets wavered in the wake of the crash. United Airlines fell 1.4% and Delta Air Lines dropped 0.9%.

All told, the S&P 500 fell 63.90 points to 5,906.94. The Dow dropped 418.48 points to 42,573.73, and the Nasdaq fell 235.25 points to 19,486.78.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.53% from 4.63% late Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 4.25% from 4.33% late Friday.

The price of U.S. crude oil rose 0.6%. Energy stocks held up better than the rest of the market, falling just 0.1%.

Natural gas prices jumped 12%. That helped support gains for natural gas producers. EQT Corp. rose 5.1% for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks.

Indexes in Europe and Asia mostly fell.

Markets are nearing the close of a stellar year driven by a growing economy, solid consumer spending and a strong jobs market. Wall Street expects companies within the S&P 500 to report broad earnings growth of more than 9% for the year, according to FactSet. The final figures will be tallied following fourth-quarter reports that start in a few weeks.

Wall Street was encouraged by cooling inflation throughout the year that had brought the rate of inflation close to the Federal Reserve's 2% target. That raised hopes that the central bank would deliver a steady stream of interest rate cuts, which would ease borrowing costs and fuel more economic growth.

The Fed cut interest rates three times in 2024, but has signaled a more cautious approach heading into 2025 amid stubborn inflation and worries about it reheating. The latest report on consumer prices showed that inflation edged slightly higher, to 2.7%, in November.

Worries about the potential for inflation reigniting have been further fueled by tariff threats from incoming President Donald Trump. Companies typically pass along the higher costs from tariffs on goods and raw materials to consumers.

While U.S. stock indexes have historically gotten a boost at year’s end —- often referred to as a ‘Santa Claus’ rally — the recent market declines put a damper on that.

“The ‘Santa Claus rally’ that most were calling for and asking for we perhaps got earlier in November,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “This week is going to be another week of drift, whether it’s drifting up or down.”

Investors have very little corporate and economic news to review this week, which is shortened by the New Year holiday. Markets will be closed on Wednesday.

On Thursday, investors will get an updated snapshot of U.S. construction spending for the month of November. On Friday, Wall Street will receive an update on manufacturing for December.

FIL:E - The New York Stock Exchange is shown in New York's Financial District on Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

Participants perform a traditional hand clap at the end of a ceremony to conclude the year's trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Nikkei 225 index is seen on screen at the site of a ceremony to mark the last trading day of the year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Visitors look at the end of a ceremony to conclude the year's trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Participants perform a traditional hand clap at the end of a ceremony to conclude the year's trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A staff works on the last trading day of the year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Nikkei 225 index is seen on screen as a TV camera crew films the site of a ceremony to mark the last trading day of the year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Participants attend the end of a ceremony to conclude the year's trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Media wait for the ceremony to mark the last trading day of the year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Hiromi Yamaji, CEO of Japan Exchange Group (JPX) delivers a speech at the end of a ceremony to conclude the year's trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 27, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

FIL:E - People photograph the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Dec. 27, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

FILE - The New York Stock Exchange is shown behind the statue titled "Fearless Girl", Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, leaders of the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot who Donald Trump has said should be jailed for their roles in the inquiry.

Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in a ceremony Thursday at the White House, including Americans who fought for marriage equality, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and two of the president's longtime friends, former Sens. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said in a statement. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Biden last year honored people who were involved in defending the Capitol from a mob of angry Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, or who helped safeguard the will of American voters during the 2020 presidential election, when Trump tried and failed to overturn the results.

Cheney, a former Wyoming congresswoman, and Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, led the House committee that investigated the insurrection. The committee's final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the election he lost to Biden and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. Thompson wrote that Trump “lit that fire.”

Cheney later said she would vote for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race and campaigned with the Democratic nominee, raising Trump's ire. Biden has been considering whether to offer preemptive pardons to Cheney and others Trump has targeted.

Trump, who won the 2024 election and will take office Jan. 20, still refuses to back away from his lies about the 2020 presidential race and has said he would pardon the rioters once he is back in the White House.

During an interview with NBC's “Meet the Press,” the president-elect said that “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps," claiming without evidence they “deleted and destroyed” testimony they collected.

“Honestly, they should go to jail,” he said.

Biden is also giving the award to attorney Mary Bonauto, who fought to legalize same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leader of the marriage equality movement.

Other honorees include Frank Butler, who set new standards for using tourniquets on war injuries; Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the Vietnam War who founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led women's rights protests in the 1970s and fought for equal pay.

He's also giving the award to photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and Frances Visco, the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Other former lawmakers being honored include former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J.; former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to represent Kansas; and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who championed gun safety measures after her son and husband were shot to death.

Biden will honor four people posthumously: Joseph Galloway, a former war correspondent who wrote about the first major battle in Vietnam in the book “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young"; civil rights advocate and attorney Louis Lorenzo Redding; former Delaware judge Collins Seitz; and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was held with other Japanese Americans during World War II and challenged the detention.

The Presidential Citizens Medal was created by President Richard Nixon in 1969 and is the country’s second highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognizes people who “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

This combo photo shows Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., speaking during the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago, left; and Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney speaking during a town hall with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at The People's Light in Malvern, Pa., Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, right. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley/Matt Rourke)

President Joe Biden makes a statement on the latest developments in New Orleans from Camp David, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)