All right, thanks guys, happy new year.

Welcome to Closing Bell.

I'm Mike Santoli in for Scott Wopner today.

This make or break hour begins with a quiet close

to a booming year on Wall Street,

the benchmark S&P 500 wavering just below a record high,

but sitting on a near 25% gain with an hour of trading left in 2023.

The index still has a chance at a ninth straight winning week, a rare display of

persistent strength for stocks, even as the small cap Russell 2000 slips giving up about

1% on the day after a ripping 25% surge since November 1st.

Almost everything went right for the markets in the fourth quarter.

Oil, inflation, and bond deals all falling while unemployment stayed near historic lows and the Fed hinted at

policy easing ahead which brings us to our talk of the tape have investors been

over served with bullish news heading into a new year raising the risk of a letdown in January or can the

rolling celebration of an expected soft economic landing carry on from here.

Here to help us answer those questions, this is Charles Schwabs Kevin Gordon.

Kevin, great to see you. Thanks for coming in.

Mike, thanks for having me. There's the scene as we enter 2024. I mean I guess the

question is has the whole economic cycle been refreshed with what the Fed has done, what

bond yields have done, you know, that don't fight the Fed, don't fight the tape rules seem like

they should be pretty encouraging right here.

How do you see it?

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