S&P 500 Little Changed, Poised for Best Performance Since 1997

U.S. stocks were little changed, after the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index reached an all-time high last week and headed toward its biggest annual gain since 1997.

The S&P 500 fell less than 1 point to 1,841.09 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark index is poised for a 29% gain this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25.94 points, or 0.2%, to 16,504.35 today.

“It’s a slow market right now without any dramatic news and I don’t see much happening between now and trading through close tomorrow,” John Carey, a fund manager at Pioneer Investment Management, which oversees about $220 billion, said in a telephone interview. “Then we’re off to the races in the new year.”

The S&P 500 has gained 2% in December, heading for its fourth straight monthly advance. The gauge climbed 3.7% 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 stimulus, known as quantitative easing, have sent the S&P 500 up 172% from a 12-year low in 2009.

Home Sales

Pending home sales increased 0.2%, the first gain in six months, after a 1.2% drop in October that was larger than initially reported, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 1% advance.

Five years after the equity bull market started, U.S. investors returned to stocks in 2013, just in time for the best relative returns versus bonds on record.

Exchange-traded and mutual funds investing in shares took in about $162 billion, the most since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and the Investment Company Institute. At the same time, the S&P 500’s 29% advance has beaten government debt by 32%age points, the widest spread since at least 1978, according to data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bloomberg.

“The equity culture is not dead,” Joseph Quinlan, the chief market strategist at Bank of America Corp.’s U.S. Trust, said in a Dec. 13 phone interview from New York. His firm oversees $333 billion in client assets. “We kind of lost sight of the fact that equities still provide long-term good returns.”

Equity returns will slow next year, Wall Street strategists forecast. The S&P 500 will end 2014 at 1,950, according to the average of 20 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That represents a 5.9% gain over the next 12 months.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Alternative investments Mutual funds
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING