Closing Bell: Stocks finish best year since 2013

Dow: &#160;24,719.22, -118.29, (-0.48%)
S&amp;P 500: &#160;2,673.61, -13.93, (-0.52%)
Nasdaq: &#160;6,903.39, -46.77, (-0.67%)

December 29, 2017

Stocks slipped on the final working day of 2017, but not by nearly enough to cast a shadow on the incredible rally this year.

For the first time ever, the S&P 500 finished every month of the calendar year with a gain.

Here's Friday's scoreboard:

And for the final trading day of the year, here's how various assets were priced on Friday, and their annual gain:

Goldman Sachs expects a $5 billion hit to profits for the fourth quarter and year because of the new tax law. Two-thirds of that is due to changes in repatriation taxes, when funds held overseas are returned.
Ripple briefly overtook ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ripple, which focuses on bank transfers, sported gains of more than 40% at one point Friday, propelling it to a record high and a market cap of $73.65 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
A settlement has been reached in the insider trading case against Bill Ackman's hedge fund, Pershing Square, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. "Pershing Square and Valeant have agreed to split the $290 million total settlement such that Pershing Square will pay $193.75 million and Valeant will pay $96.25 million," Pershing said in a press release.

Additionally: