- It's the final trading day of 2024.
- The NYSE will close on Jan. 9 to honor late former President Jimmy Carter.
- Natural gas prices are rising.
Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Year-end
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It's the final trading day of 2024, and stocks have been stumbling into the year-end. The major indexes were each down about 1% Monday on thin trading. But with one trading session to go, all three averages are well ahead on the year, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 13%, the S&P 500 up 24% and the Nasdaq Composite up 30%. Follow live market updates as stocks close out the year.
2. Honoring a president
The NYSE will close on Jan. 9 to honor late former President Jimmy Carter. The last occasion of its kind was in December 2018 to honor former President George Herbert Walker Bush. The Nasdaq exchange will likewise close trading on that Thursday, and trading on the bond market will end at 2 p.m. ET.
3. Boeing fleet
Boeing's 737-800, the type of aircraft that fatally crashed in South Korea over the weekend, is one of the world's most common jet models. The plane makes up 17% of the global in-service commercial passenger jet fleet, according to data firm Cirium, with nearly 4,400 aircraft in operation. The 737-800 also has a strong safety record and an average age of 13 years, which experts say makes it unlikely that investigators will find a design flaw in the long-flying aircraft.
4. Gassing up
Natural gas prices are rising. February futures hit a 52-week high Monday, up more than 15% during the session, after a report by The Weather Co. and Atmospheric G2 that said January could be colder than usual on the East Coast and around the Great Lakes. "We are talking [about] bone-chilling polar vortex weather, which has caused this spike in natural gas," said John Kilduff of Again Capital.
5. Treasury hack
The Treasury says it was hacked. In a letter addressed to members of Congress and seen by NBC News, Aditi Hardikar, the assistant secretary for management of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, said the department was made aware of a state-sponsored Chinese hacking operation on Dec. 8. A Treasury spokesperson said there is no evidence that the foreign actor still has access to Treasury systems. Still, the department is calling it "a major incident." China denies the allegations.
Money Report
– CNBC's Samantha Subin, John Melloy, Leslie Josephs and Sean Conlon, and NBC News' Kalhan Rosenblatt and Brian Cheung contributed to this report.
