What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors.U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates.The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing. But it wasnt just Apple, Nvidia, and the like. Bitcoin, gold, and other investments also drove higher.Heres a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20.1998Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseballs Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last years spurt of 24.2%.57The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6.3The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected.1,508Thats how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trumps return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world. The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trumps policies could also send inflation higher.$100,000The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. Its been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trumps election. Hes turned around and become a fan of crypto, and hes named a former regulator whos seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacingsomeone who critics saidwas overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following thecollapse of crypto exchange FTX.26.7%Golds rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. Its also benefited from the Feds cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing.$420Its a favorite number of Elon Musk, and its also a threshold that Teslas stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share. Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musks close relationship with Trump could benefit the company.$91.2 billionThats how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidias chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidias worth to more than $3 trillion in total.74%GameStops gain on May 13after Keith Gill, better known as Roaring Kitty, appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailers stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the meme stock craze in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but hesold all of his holdings by late October.1.6%, 3.0%, and 3.1%Thats how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation high interest rates would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient.20.1%This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings an all-time high through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moodys. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work.3.73 millionThatsthe total number of previously occupied homes sold nationallythrough the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024s home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.