US stock market pushed household wealth to record high in fourth quarter

(Reuters) -U.S. household wealth rose to a fresh record high at the end of 2024, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday, thanks to a stock market rally that appears to have run out of steam in the past three weeks.

The net worth of households and non-profit groups rose to $169.4 trillion in the fourth quarter of last year, the U.S. central bank said in its quarterly U.S. financial accounts report, the slowest quarterly gain in at least two years, as a drop in the value of real estate trimmed gains from equities.

The S&P 1500 Composite index, which encompasses the vast majority of the U.S. stock market, gained 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024. It has lost nearly $4 trillion in value since President Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration and about $2.7 trillion since this year began.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao)