S&P 500 climbs to fresh intraday record in holiday-shortened session
The S&P 500 rose to a new all-time high on Wednesday after notching a record close in the prior trading day.
The broad market index was last up 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite hovered around the flatline, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 208 points, or 0.4%.
Nike was among the day’s winners, advancing 4% after Apple CEO Tim Cook disclosed he bought shares in the apparel maker. Micron Technology was another standout, with shares up 3%.
Stocks were coming off a winning session, led by tech names including Google parent Alphabet, Nvidia, Broadcom and Amazon. The S&P 500 posted a fresh record close of 6,909.79 on Tuesday.
Those moves came after the Commerce Department issued its a third-quarter reading of the U.S. gross domestic product that came in at 4.3%, surpassing the Dow Jones consensus estimate of 3.2%.The report, which had been delayed by the government shutdown, initially led traders to lower their expectations of interest rate cuts early next year. However, fed funds futures trading still indicates two rate cuts by the end of 2026, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.
Investors continue to hope for the coveted Santa Claus rally, a year-end stock market surge that occurs between the last five trading days of the year and the first two of the new year. This year, that’s from the opening bell on Dec. 24 until Jan. 5.
Though Thomas Martin of Globalt Investments anticipates a “quiet” period through the end of the year due to lower trading volume, he believes there’s still some bias to the upside — enough for the S&P 500 to reach the 7,000 level.
Source : Cnbc.com
