The fourth quarter of 2023 was a risk-on environment across the U.S. stock market, with cyclical and economically sensitive stocks significantly outperforming defensive issues. Only energy declined in the fourth quarter, as weaker energy prices weighed on these shares.
For the one-year period, technology, communication services, and consumer services stocks vastly outperformed the broad index. Only two sectors—utilities and energy—showed negative returns for the one-year period.