That's it from me for 2024. And what a year it's been. Head over to our US site for more market moving news.

See you next year!

That's a wrap from the FTSE 100! A 5.7% gain for the year-to-date for the FTSE 100 and a 5.4% increase for the FTSE 250. Thanks for playing, everyone.

Sangamo Therapeutics (SGMO) dropped almost 50% in premarket trade on Tuesday in the US, following news that pharma giant Pfizer (PFE) is ending a partnership with the drug developer to make a new gene therapy to treat hemophilia A.

Sangamo said it is assessing "all options" to continue making the drug.

The move by Pfizer comes despite the fact the drug had met its goals in a late-stage trial. The company was planning to file for US and European approval early next year.

Yahoo Finance UK's Brian McGleenon has written about the best performing memecoins fo 2024. Read it here.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) ticked cautiously higher on the final day of the year, after a rollercoaster year which saw it smash through previous all-time highs.

The largest digital asset by market cap was trading at around $93,800 by mid-morning in London on a subdued day in markets.

Over the last month, the asset has been volatile — heading to all-time highs past the $106,000 mark, as markets anticipate US president-elect Donald Trump's incoming pro-crypto cast of advisers.

During the election cycle, Trump made several pledges in line with boosting the crypto industry. One such pledge was to build a national bitcoin reserve for the US.

Oil prices saw moderate gains as strong economic data from China and a weakening US dollar provided support, while expectations of a more cautious approach to quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve limited further upside.

Brent crude futures rose by 0.7%, trading at $74.48 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 0.6%, settling at $71.42.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, announced new measures aimed at stimulating economic activity, boosting market sentiment and fuelling expectations of increased demand. The announcement of a record fiscal stimulus package worth 3 trillion yuan ($411bn/£327bn) further enhanced optimism about the country’s future oil needs.

Positive signals also came from China’s non-manufacturing sector, with the December Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) hitting 52.2, exceeding forecasts. While the manufacturing PMI for December was slightly below expectations at 50.1, it remained in the expansion zone, indicating ongoing growth.

Despite these positive indicators, the potential impact of political uncertainties, including the diplomatic and trade policies under president-elect Trump, continues to weigh on market sentiment. At the same time, expectations that the Federal Reserve will adopt a more measured approach to quantitative easing have helped prevent further significant price increases.

Yahoo Finance UK's Pedro Goncalves reports:

The pound remained steady against the dollar in early European trading on the final day of 2024, hovering around $1.2552. As traders prepare for what is expected to be a volatile 2025, market sentiment towards sterling is cautious.

Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at Corpay, forecasts a challenging year ahead for the pound, driven by a combination of domestic economic hurdles, potential interest rate cuts, and external pressures, including shifts in US policy.

“We think the Bank of England will cut rates more aggressively than markets anticipate in the near term, limiting the extent to which interest differentials can support the currency against the euro,” Schamotta said. The strategist believes this dynamic will weigh on the pound’s performance, particularly in the early part of the year.

Despite the expected difficulties, Schamotta points to potential recovery opportunities later in 2025. “While the pound could suffer along with its global counterparts if the greenback extends its recent strength in the first quarter, we expect a recovery to take hold once markets have more soberly evaluated the likely direction of US policy,” he added. As a result, he suggests that GBP/USD could break the $1.30 mark by the year’s end.

The pound is set to end the year as the top-performing major currency against the dollar.

Meanwhile, the sterling was also flat against the euro (GBPEUR=X), at €1.2056.

The major news coming out of the US overnight was that the Treasury Department has been hacked by a Chinese state-sponsored actor through a third-party software service provider.

The agency sent a letter to Congress on Monday describing it as as a “major cybersecurity incident", Bloomberg News reported. Bloomberg reporters viewed the letter.

The Treasury said BeyondTrust Inc informed them that a hacker had accessed a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users."

The agency is currently investigating.

Major Asian indices tracked caution on Wall Street on Tuesday, closing out the year mostly lower, with some exceptions.

Japanese stocks fell, with the Nikkei (^N225) down 1% by the end of the session. The index is now closed for the rest of the week. South Korea's KOSPI (^KS11) was also 0.2% lower.

The Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong rose 0.3% following data from China that showed its manufacturing sector had expanded for the third month on the trot in December, but at a slower pace. The data suggest Chinese stimulus in the final quarter helped support the economy of one of the world's growth engines.

US stocks were more cautious on Tuesday in premarket trade, following a selloff on Monday, hovering around the flatline.

From our US team:

Stocks fell on Monday, with the woes of the three major indexes continuing in the final week of the year as an otherwise strong 2024 comes to a close.

The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) slipped more than 1% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell roughly 1.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell about 0.8%.

Stocks moved lower as the 10-year Treasury yield (^TNX) retreated from a seven-month high to hover near 4.55%.

Stocks closed out last week with a Friday slide from Big Tech names like Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA), with the Nasdaq Composite falling 1.5% and the S&P 500 down over 1%.

The highly anticipated "Santa Claus" rally, which is statistically one of the most consistent seven-day positive stretches of the year for the S&P 500, has flopped thus far. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has risen 1.3% during the seven trading days beginning Dec. 24, well above the typical seven-day average of 0.3%, according to LPL Financial chief technical strategist Adam Turnquist. In the current period, the S&P 500 is down nearly 1%.

Read more on Yahoo Finance

Hello from London. It's the last day of the year, and, unsurprisingly, a quiet one for the corporate calendar. The London Stock Exchange closes at 12.30pm in preparation for the new year.

Nonetheless, we will bring you the markets news of the day — things are happening out there!

Let's get to it.