While stocks plunged on Monday, 2024 was still a year of records on Wall Street: The S&P 500 hit 57 records, placing it in the top five years with the most all-time highs recorded by the benchmark index.

Two years into the bull market, strategists attribute the rally to strong corporate earnings and outsized momentum from several members of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks, which include chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA), as well as Tesla (TSLA) and Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG). , Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META).

Read more: 10 charts that tell the story of markets and the economy in 2024.

Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at the age of 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia, the Carter Center said.

On Monday, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq announced that trading would be closed on Thursday, January 9, in observance of the national day of mourning.

Claire Boston of Yahoo Finance reports:

Homebuilding contracts picked up again in November as buyers ignored increased mortgage rates and benefited from higher inventory levels.

The Pending Home Sales Index, which tracks contract signings on existing homes, rose 2.2% from October to 79, the highest since February 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). An index level of 100 represents contract activity for the year 2001.

It’s the fourth consecutive month of gains. Pending home sales increased 6.9% compared to November 2023.

“Consumers appear to have recalibrated their expectations for mortgage rates and are taking advantage of more available inventory,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a statement.

All 11 sectors in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) were in the red at Monday’s open. The information technology sector (XLK), a key driver of the stock market rally in 2024, led the losses, down about 1.8%.

The “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks — Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL, GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA) — were all more than 1% to start the trading session.

Futures point to a lower open on Wednesday as stocks continue to struggle during a historically strong stretch for the S&P 500 (^GSPC).

Since 1950, the S&P 500 has risen 1.3% in the seven trading days beginning Dec. 24, well above the typical seven-day average of 0.3%, according to Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. History has shown that when Santa Claus comes and the S&P 500 produces a positive return during that period, January is typically a positive month for the benchmark index and the rest of the year has an average return of 10.4%.

If the S&P 500 is negative during this period, January typically doesn’t end in the green and the return for the coming full year averages just 5%, according to Turnquist. Three days into this year’s Santa Claus season, which ends Friday, Jan. 3, the S&P 500 is down less than 0.1%.

While history may be a warning sign, it’s notable that the Santa Claus Rally didn’t happen last year. January also started badly. Nevertheless, the S&P 500 is expected to end the year with a gain of more than 20%.

Shares of Boeing (BA) fell more than 3% in premarket trading Monday morning after one of its planes was involved in a fatal crash in South Korea on Sunday.

The 737-800 plane operated by Jeju Air Co. crashed at Muan International Airport on Sunday morning, killing all but two of the 181 people on board. Bloomberg reported that investigators will focus on a bird strike on the plane and a landing gear failure.