Stocks rose on Wall Street on Monday, beginning what was expected to be a relatively calm holiday week.
The benefits gained were manifold. Much of the heavy lifting has been done by technology companies and banks. Industrial stocks also pushed up major indexes.
The S&P 500 rose 43.99 points, or 0.6%, to 6,878.49. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 227.79 points, or 0.5%, to 48,362.68. The Nasdaq Composite rose 121.21 points (0.5%) to 23,428.83.
Small and medium-sized company stocks performed particularly well. The Russell 2000 index outperformed other major indexes, rising 1.2%.
It also helped push the major indexes further into winning territory for the month as an eventful December draws to a close. Technology companies, especially those focused on artificial intelligence, are the main drivers of market volatility. The performance of AI stocks will determine whether the market ends December with a profit or a loss.
“If Santa Claus rallies are to begin in earnest this year, St. Nick’s gift bag will need to be filled with positive technology sentiment,” wrote Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investments at Morgan Stanley E-Trade.
Nvidia, which has played a big role in the tech sector’s overall rally this year, rose 1.5%. JPMorgan rose 1.9%, making it one of the biggest gainers in the banking sector.
Uber, which announced plans to introduce a robotaxi service in London next year, rose 2.5%, and Lyft rose 2.7%.
Paramount Skydance rose 4.3%. The company advanced its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Larry Ellison, the father of Oracle founder and Paramount CEO David Ellison. He is plowing billions of dollars to support the deal as part of the latest move in a bidding war with Paramount and Netflix.
Warner Bros. Discovery rose 3.5%, while Netflix fell 1.2%.
Dominion Energy fell 3.7% after the Trump administration announced it would suspend leasing on five large offshore wind projects. That includes Dominion’s offshore wind project off the coast of Virginia.
Gold and silver hit record values and oil prices soared after the US Coast Guard announced it was tracking another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean.
Gold prices rose 1.9% to settle at $4,469.40, adding to consistent gains over the year. Silver rose 1.6%.
US crude oil prices rose 2.4% to $58.01 per barrel. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard crude oil, rose 2.6% to $62.07 per barrel.
In the bond market, government bond yields rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury rose to 4.16% from 4.15% late Friday.
Asian markets rose, but European markets fell.
U.S. markets closed early Wednesday for Christmas Eve and will remain closed Thursday for Christmas. This short trading week will include several economic reports that could shed further light on the state and direction of the U.S. economy.
On Tuesday, the government will release the first of three estimates for gross domestic product that reflect the overall state of the U.S. economy in the third quarter. The Labor Department will release weekly data on unemployment benefit claims, an indicator of U.S. layoffs, on Wednesday.
The Conference Board will also release the results of its December Consumer Confidence Survey on Tuesday.
The upcoming report comes on the heels of various updates from last week that showed inflation remained high over the past year and consumer confidence has declined. Overall, the job market is slowing and retail sales are weak.
The ongoing wide-ranging U.S. trade war is already stressing and worrying consumers and businesses with soaring prices. The combination of persistently high inflation and a weak job market will also put the Federal Reserve in a more difficult policy position going forward.
The Fed has lowered its benchmark interest rate in each of its past three meetings, even though inflation remains above its 2% target. Federal Reserve officials are increasingly worried about a slowing job market and are under pressure to cut interest rates. However, lowering interest rates to support the economy due to the weak job market could accelerate inflation.
Most on Wall Street expect the Fed to keep interest rates unchanged at its January meeting.
Troise is a contributor to The Associated Press.
