U.S. stocks slide on final trading day of 2017

Wall Street capped 2017 with a loss, weighed down by a broad slide in light trading ahead of the New Year’s holiday.

Technology companies, banks and health care stocks accounted for much of the market’s decline. Energy stocks also fell, even as the price of U.S. crude oil surged to its highest level in more than two years.

Despite the downbeat end to the week, the U.S. stock market finished 2017 with its strongest year since 2013.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the broadest measure of the stock market, gained 19.4 percent for the year, more than double its gain in 2016. Including dividends, the total return was 22.5 percent, as of late Thursday.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the year with a 25.1 percent gain, setting 71 all-time highs along the way.

The Nasdaq composite notched the biggest gain, an increase of 28.2 percent, while the Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks closed out 2017 with a gain of 13.1 percent.

“It’s been the year that surprised everybody,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. “It was truly buy-onthe-dip, and that paid off better than anyone possibly expected.”

On Friday, many investors opted to pocket some of their gains, especially in technology stocks, which led the market with a gain of 36.9 percent. Chipmaker KLA-Tencor was among the sector’s big decliners, dropping $2.78, or 2.6 percent, to $105.07.

“We’ve seen a little bit of a rotation from growth back to some of the more defensive names, so it’s not surprising to see some ... redistribution to areas that generally haven’t participated,” said Eric Wiegand, senior portfolio manager for Private Wealth Management at U.S. Bank.

Friday’s slide pulled the market lower for the week.

All told, the S&P 500 ended the day down 13.93 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,673.61. The Dow dropped 118.29 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,719.22. The Nasdaq fell 46.77 points, or 0.7 percent, to 6,903.39. The Russell 2000 index gave up 13.42 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,535.51.

Oil and gas futures finished broadly higher Friday. Benchmark U.S. crude added 58 cents, or 1 percent, to settle at $60.42 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the highest closing price of the year and the first time U.S. crude has finished above $60 a barrel since June 2015.

Despite the big gain in oil and gas prices, energy stocks were mixed. National Oilwell Varco rose 53 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $36.02, while Range Resources slid 55 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $17.06.

“Just like stocks right now, the futures have a pretty light volume,” Kinahan said. “We need some real volumes for people to say, ‘OK, this is real.’”

The dollar finished the year weaker for the first time since 2012. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index, which compares the value of the dollar to a basket of major currencies, declined nearly 10 percent this year, its biggest drop since 2003.