Despite a lackluster day in the stock market, the Dow finished 2016 up 13.42 percent, while the narrowly missed out on ending the year with double-digit gains. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, wrapped up 2016 with a net gain of 7.5 percent. The Dow ended the day down 57.18 points at 19,762. It had been on pace to end the year 14 percent higher, but instead finished only 13.42 percent higher after its first down week since the election.

The S&P fell about 10 points, or about half a percent, on Friday, after ending Thursday down less than a point at 2,249. In order to gain 10 percent for the year, the index had to close at 2,248.33, but it finished at 2,238.83. The index now has four positive years in the past five. The Nasdaq closed 48.97 points lower on Friday, down 0.9 percent. Still, it notched its fifth positive year in a row for the first time since its five-year streak that ended in 2007.

The best and worst of 2016



The best Dow performer year to date ended up being Caterpillar, which gained 36.46 percent. It was followed closely by UnitedHealth, which finished the year up 36.04 percent. Nike was, by far, the worst performer of the year, down 18.67 percent, its worst annual performance since 2008 when it fell 20.61 percent.

Of the S&P 500 companies, Nvidia is the year's top performer, up about 223.8 percent, followed by Oneok, which rose 132.8 percent and is the only other stock in the S&P to double in 2016. On the other side of the spectrum, Endo International takes the title of the year's worst-performing stock in the S&P, down 73.1 percent, followed by First Solar, which fell 51.4 percent. The biggest winners of the S&P were energy (up 23.65 percent), financials (up 20.14 percent) and telecom (up 17.81 percent). On the losing side of the S&P, health care was the only sector to finish negative, losing 4.36 percent.



Looking ahead to 2017