U.S. Stocks Climb to Records as S&P 500 Has Best Year Since 1997

Bloomberg (1/1) – U.S. stocks rose to records, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index posting its biggest annual advance since 1997, as gains in consumer confidence and housing prices bolstered confidence in the world’s largest economy.

The S&P 500 added 0.4 percent to an all-time high of 1,848.35 at 4 p.m. in New York. The equities benchmark has jumped 30 percent this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 72.44 points, or 0.4 percent, to 16,576.73, also a record. The S&P 500 gained 2.4 percent in December, its fourth straight monthly advance. The gauge climbed 3.7 percent from Dec. 13 through Dec. 27, its biggest two-week rally since July, as the Federal Reserve announced plans to reduce the pace of bond buying amid faster-than-estimated economic growth. Three rounds of Fed stimulus have sent the S&P 500 up 173 percent from a 12-year low in 2009.