US open: Dow and S&P 500 hover near record highs on final trading day of 2017

US stocks were little changed in early trade in the final session of the year, although the Dow and the S&P 500 were hovering near record highs in holiday-thinned volumes.

At 1500 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were flat at 24,832.42 and 2,687.17, respectively, while the Nasdaq was down 0.1% at 6,942.56. On Thursday, the Dow closed at a record for the 71st time this year.

Meanwhile, oil prices were at their highest level since mid-2015 following an unexpected drop in American output and a decline in commercial crude inventories.

Looking back on the last year, FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga said: “Market players marched into the trading year adopting a risk-on attitude, amid growing optimism over Donald Trump pushing ahead with a large fiscal spending package. The ‘Trump effect’ not only elevated global stocks to 19-month highs in January, but also sent the dollar to its highest level in 14 years. In February, the series of pending elections in Europe, ongoing Brexit developments and heightened Trump uncertainties, made political risk a recurrent theme during the first quarter of 2017. Although during the same month Trump made promises of a ‘phenomenal’ tax plan, the growing threat of him moving forward with the protectionist policies while overlooking the proposed fiscal stimulus, weighed heavily on investor sentiment.

“It was all about Brexit fuelled anxiety and Trump jitters in March, which ultimately supported safe-haven assets such as gold while investors fled to safety. The Federal Reserve moved forward with a ‘dovish hike’ in the same month which punished the dollar further.”

In corporate news, Progenics surged 12% after the US FDA said it will review the company’s treatment for a rare type of cancer.

Netflix ticked a touch higher after the company announced plans to bump up the salary of a number of its top executives next year, pointing to the recently-passed US tax bill. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos will earn a $12m base salary in 2018, having earned $1m a year in the last three years.

Shares in Goldman Sachs fell as it emerged it will take a $5bn hit from the US tax reforms that kick in next year.

Apple shares were in the red after the technology giant apologised for deliberately slowing down some of its older iPhones.