John McDermott has been the business editor of The Post and Courier since 2006. He's written about all facets of the South Carolina economy, served in the U.S. Air Force and is a graduate of the University of Hawaii-Manoa journalism program.
The S&P 500 delivered a stout 23 percent gain to investors last year, fueled by a growing economy, solid consumer spending and a strong jobs market.
South Carolina-based companies for the most part did not.
The 14 businesses that are headquartered in the Palmetto State with shares listed on a major U.S. exchange fell by a collective 12 percent when the closing bell rang Tuesday. It was an opposite mirror-image of the respectable 12 percent gain the homegrown basket of stocks logged for the prior year.
The underwhelming January-December performance also lagged the other major market indexes, such as the Dow, which climbed almost 13 percent, and the Nasdaq, which surged 28.6 percent as it rode the artificial-intelligence technology wave.
In all, the shares of five South Carolina companies closed out the year higher than where they began.
All but one of them were in the loan space.
Leading the pack was the Greer-based parent of the Regional Finance, a consumer lending chain that operates online and from storefronts in 19 states. Regional Management Corp., which trades under the symbol "RM" on the Big Board, handily outpaced the local field and the broader markets with a gradual 37 percent runup in its stock price over the course of past 12 months.
Next up was another Upstate company. Greenville-based technology equipment distributor ScanSource Inc. jumped 20 percent to $47, on top of an outsized 36 percent jump in 2023.
The three other gainers from the Palmetto State last year were all banks: First Community of Lexington and United Community and Southern First, both from Greenville. They racked up respective gains of 13 percent, 11 percent and 7 percent.
The losers were led by a company that's since moved on from South Carolina for the big city lights. Alternus Clean Energy Inc., an investor in utility-scale solar farms that until recently called Fort Mill home, lost nearly all of its value last year. Its Nasdaq-listed stock plummeted 98 percent from $37 last January to 79 cents on Dec. 31.
Alternus didn't close out its forgettable 2024 in the Palmetto State. The company told shareholders in November that it had moved its headquarters to New York City "to be closer to its financial partners and the investment community."
The past year was slightly less unkind to investors in a handful of other South Carolina publicly traded companies. Columbia-based builder United Homes Group, where Kiawah Island resident and former Gov. Nikki Haley is on the board of directors, fell by more than half to $4.23.
Not far behind was 3D Systems, a maker of three-dimensional printers from Rock Hill. Its shares tumbled 47 percent, while the Spartanburg parent of the Denny's restaurant chain was down 44 percent.
They'll surely be looking ahead to better days and better returns in 2025.