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Stocks rose on Monday to start a holiday-shortened trading week as the continuous strength in technology names helped the broader market.
The Dow Jones Industrials regrouped 66.69 points to close at 42,906.95.
The S&P 500 index recovered 43.22 points to 5,974.07
The NASDAQ rocketed 192.29 points, or 1%, to 19,700, as Tesla and Meta Platforms added more than 2% and Nvidia climbed more than 3%.
MicroStrategy slid 8.8%, on the stock’s first day of inclusion in the NASDAQ index.
Trading is expected to be relatively muted during the week. The New York Stock Exchange closes early Tuesday for Christmas Eve at 1 p.m. ET, and the market will be shut on Christmas Day.
Weak economic data seemed to sour the sentiment. 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.
Investors were hopeful that a so-called Santa Claus rally may help the market end 2024 on a high note, especially following a tumultuous week. Dating back to 1969, the S&P 500, on average, added 1.3% in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in January, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
The second half of December is also typically the second-strongest period of the year for U.S. equities, and the S&P 500 has been up 83% of the time in December of presidential election years, according to Bank of America.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury sank a bit, lifting yields to 4.59% from Friday’s 4.53%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices eked higher three cents to $69.49 U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold paled $18.40 an ounce to $2,626.70 U.S.
