For the first time ever, the Nasdaq composite index broke through the 9,000 thresholds on Thursday. While Nasdaq snapped its 11-day winning streak, the longest streak since 1997, after showing some weakness, S&P 500 and the Dow made record closing highs as well.

Wall Street Week…
S&P 500: All-Time High
Dow: All-Time High
Nasdaq: All-Time High
NYSE: All-Time High
Mid-Cap 400: All-Time High
Wilshire 5000: All-Time High
Global Dow: All-Time High
Merry🎄
Happy🕎 pic.twitter.com/FKB7sjC59l

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) December 27, 2019

With only two days left for the year, the benchmark S&P 500 climbed over 29% so far in 2019, its biggest annual percentage gain since 2013.

We are in the longest equity bull market without a 20% drawdown.

Thisisfine.jpeg pic.twitter.com/WnVZjUKMaY

— Dan Hedl (@danheld) December 20, 2019

All three major Wall Street indexes are posting record closing highs on the back of optimism over US-China trade relations and Amazon’s record-breaking holiday sales and a year-end stock-market rally.

The holiday sales figures revealed strong consumer activity and growing popularity in online shopping.

What’s behind this rally?

Shares of Amazon spiked 4.5% after a Mastercard report showed that US shoppers spent more online during the holiday season than in 2018, with e-commerce sales making a record high.

“Billion of items were purchased,” said the e-commerce giant with “tens of millions of Amazon devices” bought worldwide. More than 5 million new customers started paid memberships or Prime free trials, the company said in a statement.

US-China’s cooling trade tension as Beijing said it is in close contact with Washington about an initial trade agreement has also been fueling the last leg of Wall Street’s record rally.

Also, a Labor Department report showed the number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits fell, a sign of ongoing labor market strength.

Gold and Digital Gold meanwhile…

It wasn’t just equities index that soared, gold is also having its best week in the last four months. A popular hedge for investors expecting increased market volatility broke through the key psychological barrier of $1,500 per ounce.

The precious metal is up 17% year to date, which puts it on pace for its best yearly performance since 2010.

Digital gold meanwhile is the winner. While, Nasdaq Composite is up over 8,800% since its launch in the early 1970s, BTC gained 8,990,000% in its decade long life span.

Bitcoin is the best performing asset of 2019 with more than 90% gains recorded to date this year. Currently, Bitcoin is trading at $7,300 after climbing to $13,900 in June.

2019 Returns…
Bitcoin: +91%
Nasdaq 100 $QQQ: +40%
Oil $USO: +34%
S&P 500 $SPY: +32%
REITs $VNQ: +28%
Small Caps $IWM: +26%
EAFE $EFA: +22%
EM $EEM: +19%
Investment Grade $LQD: +18%
Gold $GLD: +17%
High Yield $HYG: +14%
US Bonds $AGG: +9%
US Dollar $UUP: +5%
Cash $BIL: +2%

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) December 27, 2019

Moving into 2020

As we enter into 2020, strategists are expecting single-digital gains for the stock market as in most presidential elections. But these gains could be threatened if President Donald Trump’s victory is in doubt.

For Bitcoin, the next year brings the reward halving, which is a historically bullish event. With this supply shock, many are predicting the crypto asset to make a new high while others project this event to not have any effect on the price.