Wall Street rose on the final day of 2013, joining global stock markets that closed out the year at or near record highs as New Year’s Eve festivities kicked off Tuesday.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed 2013 with a gain of 29.6 percent, its best advance since 1997, and the Dow Jones industrial average added 26.5 percent for the year, its strongest since 1996. The Nasdaq composite gained 38.3 percent.

For the day, markets were bolstered by a report showing consumer confidence in the United States jumping on a better outlook for hiring and overall growth, supporting other signs that showed the economy could accelerate in 2014. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its index of consumer confidence rose to 78.1 points in December, up from 72 in the previous month. November’s figure was revised up from 70.4.

The 2013 calendar year was marked by high volatility and a remarkable rally in the later months, when the United States Federal Reserve buoyed sentiment by keeping its stimulus program intact for longer than expected and promising that interest rates would remain low in the coming months.

The Fed’s decisions are “still providing investors with the confidence to buy into the rally,” said Craig Erlam, an analyst at Alpari.

In Europe, the British and French markets, which traded for half a day, ended on a positive note. The FTSE 100 rose 0.3 percent, to 6,749.09 points, ending the year with a 14.4 percent gain. The CAC 40 in Paris increased 0.5 percent, to 4,295.95, for an 18 percent rise on the year.

Germany’s DAX, which like Italian, Swiss and Nordic exchanges had its last trading day on Monday, was among the strongest performers in 2013, with a 25.5 percent rise that put it at a record high last week.

But it was Ireland’s index that did best in Europe, with a 33.8 percent gain, as the country emerged from its financial bailout program.

That was still no match for Japan’s index, which soared 56.7 percent — its biggest annual gain in 41 years — thanks to a huge stimulus program aimed at dragging the country out of a two-decade stagnation. The Japanese market closed on Monday at its highest level in more than six years and was closed Tuesday for the holiday.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.3 percent, to close at 23,306.39 points in a half-day session. Shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen also rebounded from early losses. For the year over all, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,115.98 points, a decline of 6.75 percent from a year earlier, the largest annual drop among Asian markets.

Elsewhere in Asia, share prices rose in Malaysia, Singapore and India, but fell in Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan.

United States home prices rose in October from the previous year at the fastest pace in almost eight years, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller 20-city index of home prices. But price gains slowed in most American cities from September to October, suggesting the increases were leveling off.

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar was virtually unchanged against the Japanese yen, which slumped in value this year because of the country’s loosened monetary policy. The dollar bought 105.23 yen on Tuesday, up from around 87 at the start of the year.

The euro slipped 0.2 percent, to $1.3777, having risen from around $1.3100 at the start of 2013 as confidence in the currency bloc improved.

The price of United States benchmark crude oil slipped further below $100, as the contract for February delivery fell 69 cents, to $98.60 a barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.