The VIX closed December 12.9% higher, but ended with a 5.2% loss for the year. That gain makes it four years in a row the Nasdaq has posted a yearly gain, its longest winning streak since 2007. "A very unrewarding year".
Nonetheless, trading activity was relatively subdued, with many traders away from their desks on New Year's Eve. The plunge in energy prices rattled both stock and bond markets.
Following the US Federal Reserve's first rate hike in nearly a decade this month, the S&P; 500 is marginally lower for the year and the Dow Jones industrial average is nearly 2 per cent weaker, disappointing investors hoping for a last-minute rally.
The Dow lost 127.14 points, or 0.7 percent. Only the Nasdaq Composite Index, which closed down 58.43 points, or 1.2%, at 5,007.41 Thursday, saw a gain in 2015, advancing 5.7%. Apple fell more than 4 percent, logging in its first annual loss since 2008. While that means it was a hard year for many investors to eke out returns, it could have been far worse if stocks hadn't recovered from the August rout that sent the S&P; plunging to its worst monthly performance in more than three years.
With crude prices losing a third of their value this year under an unprecedented global glut, the energy sector has tumbled 23 percent, its worst annual performance since the global recession.
On the flip side, a handful of high-flying tech stocks known as FANG - short for Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google - provided extra juice to those investors who added the richly valued companies to their portfolios. Oil and gas producers in the benchmark index advanced today after erasing an early drop, though remain on track for their biggest retreat in seven years. "But you have energy and tax loss harvesting moving markets back and forth in these last few weeks", said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer at Exencial Wealth Advisors, which oversees $US1.4 billion in assets.
Given low trading volumes, the fate of Thursday's market was expected to be decided early in the session, said Randy Frederick, managing director of Schwab Center for Financial Research.
GAINERS & LOSERS: DTE Energy declined the most among companies in the S&P; 500, shedding $1.44, or 1.8 percent, to $80.10. Energy and materials stocks, which have been battered recently as commodities prices sank, rose as oil prices rebounded. Benchmark U.S. crude fell 30 cents to $36.30 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. France's CAC-40 fared better in 2015, with an 8.5 per cent gain after slipping 0.9 per cent on Thursday.
But despite the almost flat finish for the broader market, 2015 was marked by some notable ups and downs. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index edged up by 0.2 percent, while Australia's All Ordinaries Index dipped by 0.4 percent.
The market's torpor is likely to be broken next week as investors will return from the holiday to a swath of data, including gauges on the manufacturing and services industries, the monthly jobs report and minutes from the Fed meeting that ended with the first rate increase since 2006.
