S&P 500 Closes Higher to Begin Holiday Week, Tech Stocks Lead The Advance
Stocks rose on Monday to start a holiday-shortened trading week as the continuous strength in technology names helped the broader market.
The S&P 500 gained 0.73% to 5,974.07. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.98% to 19,764.89, as Tesla and Meta Platforms added more than 2% and Nvidia climbed more than 3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier losses and ended the day 66.69 points higher, or 0.16%, to 42,906.95.
Trading was thin on Monday and it’s expected to remain muted during the week. The New York Stock Exchange closes early Tuesday for Christmas Eve at 1 p.m. ET, and the market is shut on Christmas Day.
Weak economic data seemed to sour the sentiment a bit earlier in the session. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for December fell to 104.7, its lowest level since September and below a Dow Jones estimate of 113.0. Meanwhile, orders for durable goods — generally big-ticket items such as aircraft, appliances and computers — fell 1.1% in November, the largest month-over-month drop since June. The blue-chip Dow declined more than 300 points at one point Monday after the disappointing data.
The market just came off a roller-coaster ride that saw the blue-chip Dow suffer a 10-day losing streak, its longest since 1974. The Dow tumbled 1,100 points Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled fewer rate cuts for 2025 than previously projected. A cooler-than-expected inflation reading at the end of the week helped stocks recoup some of the losses.
Month to date, the 30-stock Dow is down 4.5% in December, while the S&P 500 is off by nearly 1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite bucked the downtrend, rising 2.8% this month.
Investors have been reassured that federal agencies will stay open into the new year after President Joe Biden signed a funding bill Saturday that averted a government shutdown. The bill funds federal agencies at current levels for the next three months.
Source : CNBC
