New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Last year was turbulent, trying and tumultuous for global stocks and commodities, And for many investors and traders, 2011 couldn’t end soon enough.
In the final trading day of 2011, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 69 points, but managed to eck out a 5.5 percent gain for the year.
The closely tracked Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed virtually flat, ending 2011 down 0.43 percent, while the tech heavy NASDAQ said good-bye to 2011 off 1.80 percent.
Commodities fared much better. Oil gained 8.15 percent in 2011, and gold was the sole double digit finisher bidding the year adieu with a stellar 10.23 percent gain.
The top three performers in the Dow were McDonalds, IBM and Pfizer. Laggards included Bank of American, Alcoa and Hewlett-Packard.
Leading gainers in the S&P were Cabot Oil & Gas, El Paso and Intuitive Surgical. Drags on the index were First Solar, Monster Worldwide, and Alpha Natural Resources.
Intuitive Surgical led the NASDAQ-100, followed by Alexion Pharmaceutics and Hansen Natural. The biggest loser in the index was Blackberry maker Research in Motion with First Solar and Netflix close behind.
Natural gas finished out the year at 2.989 per mil BTUs, its lowest level since 2009.
Gold, which closed 2011 up 10.23 percent, took a beating in December, falling as much as 10.5 percent in the final month of the year. The yellow metal peaked in August with a 33 percent rise.
While high unemployment, a nationwide ailing housing market and government gridlocks all weighed heavily on U.S. stocks, the European sovereign debt crisis was the biggest factor in equities gains and losses during 2011.
Markets were closed Jan. 2 in observance of New Year’s. Exchanges will start 2012 on Jan. 3 with normal trading hours, but volume and volatility is expected to be anything but normal.
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