Dow Ekes Out Small Gain in Thin Holiday Trading, Rising 5 Days in a Row
The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier losses and squeezed out a small gain in thin trading Thursday after the market’s strong back-to-back gains at the start of the holiday week.
The blue-chip Dow closed the day 28.77 points, or 0.07%, higher to 43,325.80 after losing about 182 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 dipped just 2.45 points, or 0.04%, to 6,037.59. The Nasdaq Composite also ended the day slightly lower, declining less than 0.1% to 20,020.36. The market was closed on Wednesday for Christmas Day.
Thursday’s action came after a solid Christmas Eve for the S&P 500. The benchmark’s 1.1% gain on Tuesday marked its best Christmas Eve performance since 1974, according to Bespoke. So far this week, the S&P 500 is up 1.8%, while the Dow has gained 1.1%. The strong rally in megacap tech earlier in the week lifted the Nasdaq 2.3% week to date.
Investors were enthusiastic about the so-called Santa Claus rally, which occurs in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has generated an average return of 1.3% during this period, widely outpacing the market’s average seven-day return of 0.3%, according to LPL Financial. Thursday marks the second day of the Santa rally.
Source : CNBC
