December 2024 in returns

December 2024 was the narrowest tape in this record until March 2026 beat it. Just 202 of 866 stocks finished green — 23% — and yet the Nasdaq actually rose 0.5%. That gap is the entire story of the month: the Dow fell 5.3% and the Russell 2000 8.4%, while a handful of very large names held the growth index up on their own. Crypto gave back November's exuberance in the same lopsided way, with only 19 of 81 coins (23%) higher, Solana off 20.3% and Ethereum 9.9%, even as Bitcoin's 2.9% decline looked almost orderly by comparison.

The names still working were, tellingly, the AI supply chain rather than anything cyclical: Broadcom gained 43.4%, Credo 37.3%, Astera Labs 28.3%, Nebius 26.0% and Ciena 21.6%. Everything geared to the real economy was sold — Texas Pacific Land -30.8%, MongoDB -27.8%, MicroStrategy -25.2%, CVS -25.0%, Nucor -24.2%, Builders FirstSource -23.4% and Lennar -21.8%, a list heavy with housing and materials. Crypto's damage fell hardest on November's winners in reverse: Celestia -44.8%, Worldcoin -42.3%, dogwifhat -41.4% and Stellar -36.7%. The year ended with capital retreating into a very small number of stories and abandoning everything else — a concentration that would define the year to follow.