The declines in American stock markets continued before the New Year, we were already expecting it. Because it is a profit-taking and tax harvest period in America. In other words, investors sell stocks that they lost money on so that they can deduct it from taxes, and some investors also take profits. But the most important determining day will be today and next January. Because the January barometer says that if January goes well, the rest of the year will go well. Therefore, how the stock market will open today is very, very important. Right now, stocks seem to be positive in the early market. So what does it mean, we will evaluate all of these together. There is also very important news flow regarding Tesla. Today, Tesla's 3-quarter sales figures will come, which is critical data, on the other hand, Tesla's name was also involved in an assassination and a bombing yesterday. We will evaluate all of these together today.
Actually, the stock markets did not start Wednesday too badly, there was a slight gain. But later these gains melted away and there was a very sharp decline. While the loss in S&P 500 was 0.4%, Nasdaq fell by 0.9%. This was also the lowest close since the Nasdaq index began its last mini-rise of the year on November 29. The Russell 2000 index, which gathers companies with small market caps, started yesterday with an increase but could not maintain it again and lost a significant amount of the day's gains. On the other hand, when we look at the total for the year, the S&P 500 completed 2024 with a 23.3% increase after a 24.2% increase in 2023, despite these recent declines. This means the best 2-year increase since 1997-98 with 53.2%. There were those who made you short this stock market, I want to remind you again. The Nasdaq made a 28.6% jump in 2024 this year. The Dow Jones rose by around 12.9%. The majority of the increases come from giant companies again.
S&P 500 is rising, but platforms like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla, which we call the magnificent 7, brought 53% of this rise. In fact, if we focus a little more, Nvidia brought 21% of the entire S&P 500 rise on its own with a market value exceeding 3 trillion dollars. Nvidia closed with a decline on Wednesday. But there are important developments regarding Nvidia. Not only the technology company and Mega 7 grew, the finance sector also grew. There is a stock value increase of nearly 28% there. There are increases of 20% and 16% in the public services and industry segments, respectively. In other words, the rally is actually quite widespread. I think Mega 7 can go again in 2025, and I find banking quite interesting. Because it is certain that the regulatory relaxations that Trump will bring will benefit banking in particular.
I always say that I am generally positive about 2025, but I have some concerns about the beginning. This will also become clear today. Because as of today, stock markets are reopening in America and we will see together whether investors will continue to make profits and how the restructuring of portfolios will affect the stock market. Towards the end of the year, investors usually sell stocks that have lost money due to tax harvest. Now that we have entered the new year, people have overcome the tax problem. In this case, it is possible for them to exit the stocks they made a lot of profit from and move towards new areas. The new areas may be other stocks or, as you know, interest rates are quite high in America right now, it may be returning to interest rates. Indeed, we know that a lot of money went out of stocks last week and went back to money funds, this may continue. In addition, many funds will probably change the stocks and portfolios they hold as of today. This may also bring a lot of fluctuation to the markets. While I am positive for the whole of 2025, I am negative for the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. However, my opinion may change today. We will see how the markets open today. If all these restructurings, decisions etc. do not negatively affect the stock markets, then we actually have good days ahead of us in the short term, but I will continue to watch today.
As of now, I am around 40% in cash, I am still mostly in stocks, but we have some short positions. We will watch today and see how the market develops. In the early market, the markets seem positive, but we should not attach much importance to this. Remember, the markets were very positive before the opening on Wednesday last week, it went down for a while after the opening, then profit sales came. So we will be watching today closely.
Manufacturing data regarding China continues to come in, in the meantime, the Caixin China Manufacturing Index has fallen by one point from 51.7 to 50.5. This situation shows a weaker than expected picture for China's manufacturing sector. The Chinese manufacturing sector is growing very fast. China's share of world manufacturing is also growing rapidly. There are important policies of the Chinese Communist Party and Xi Jinping behind this. However, these policies may be costing China dearly in a way.
Nvidia was in decline again as I mentioned earlier, but we may have reached the bottom of the decline. Tesla's fourth quarter and full year delivery and production figures will be released today. These numbers will probably come before the opening. Analysts estimate that Tesla sold over 500,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. This will be a record, in fact. Elon Musk predicted in the third quarter earnings meeting that full year delivery lines would slightly exceed 1,808,591, these are sales for 2023. In this context, at least 514,925 vehicles need to be sold. In other words, Tesla's recent increase in value is not actually related to vehicle sales, but rather to autonomous driving, robots, and most importantly, the Elon Musk-Trump collaboration. But today's vehicle sales data is still important. I hope we don't fall below 500,000, and if we pass 514,925, this is a critical threshold, the stock market will love it. Tesla has been in retreat for a while, as you know, after a tremendous climb, despite all these recent retreats since the beginning of the year, there has been a 68% increase. I had already predicted this retreat and even took some profit. The reason is that it has increased very quickly, when it increases very quickly, people definitely come to take profits. But other than that, the autonomous taxi news about Tesla will be the main agenda item next year.
On the other hand, we know that China is doing very well in Tesla's sales this quarter. America seems to be shaking, while sales are quite weak in Europe. One reason for the weak sales in Europe is that Europe has a generally weak economy, and another reason is that Europe does not like Elon Musk's support for Trump. Elon Musk has now started to meddle in Germany as well, as you know. Some who are seen as a right-wing party in Germany interpret it as a Neo Nazi Party, but I do not see it that way, Elon Musk supports the AFD. A significant portion of Germans do not like this either. Frankly, these do not benefit Tesla very much. Tesla has also put its battery production facility into operation. The first productions have started at the new facility. Good news about Tesla came from Cybertruck. The dual-motor Cybertruck, which starts at $79,990, seems to be finally eligible for the $7,500 US tax breaks. There is no update on this issue on the website yet. Tesla Cybertruck sales did not go very well in the last quarter. It is thought that the delay in this tax break has an impact on this. The movement may increase with the arrival of the discount.
Another important development is about the Tesla Model Y, as you know, the updated version of Juniper is starting deliveries. Production has increased considerably in Shanghai right now, they have started taking orders. I think the Model Y Juniper will seriously contribute to Tesla's sales in 2025. Let's see how its effects will be on Tesla's sales. On the other hand, there is another interesting development. There was a terrorist attack in the United States. Around 15 people died, a bomb attack. A Cybertruck was seen exploding in front of a hotel owned by Trump and in the area. Elon Musk said in his first statements that the explosion in the Cybertruck was not caused by the Cybertruck, that it could have been the effect of a bomb, and that they were investigating the issue. But one of the issues that will be discussed again today is that when a Tesla-related issue is involved, it can also come to the fore in the press.
Tesla shares continued to lose value. They closed at $403.84 on Tuesday. Let's see what happens, I will become a buyer in Tesla again under $400, this is not investment advice. Because I predict that this year will be a good year for Tesla no matter what. Of course, what I am telling you is not investment advice and it is always possible for me to be wrong. Despite the recent decline, Tesla closed 2024 with a 62.5% gain. Most of the gain came in the fourth quarter. Of course, the Elon Musk-Trump relationship is very important in this. In the meantime, the monthly, quarterly and annual sales of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers were also reported. BYD sold 514,809 vehicles in December. Li Auto sold 58513 vehicles, XPENG 36695, Nio 31318 and Zeekr 27190 vehicles. Li exceeded 500000 sales for 2024 but fell short of the fourth quarter target. As you know, XPENG has a new model called P7 Plus and a sub-brand called Mona M03, with the support of all these, they delivered 190000 vehicles and exceeded the fourth quarter forecast.
Nio also has a sub-brand, Onvo L60. With the impact of Onvo L60, Nio's sales went well and exceeded its targets in the last quarter. BYD sold 1,542,270 vehicles in the fourth quarter, including plug-in hybrids, with increased overseas sales and commercial vehicle sales in December. As I mentioned earlier, 593,413 of these were BEVs, or pure electrics. With these sales, BYD seems to be surpassing Tesla in pure electrics in the fourth quarter. When we look at the entire year, BYD's sales have increased by 41.3%. They reached 4,272,445 vehicles when we include all product categories, and thus exceeded the 4 million target.
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