Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 10, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stocks rose on Monday to start a holiday-shortened trading week as the continuous strength in technology names helped the broader market.
The large-cap equity benchmark gained 0.7% to 5,974.07. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1% to 19,764.89, as Tesla and Meta Platforms and Nvidia all climbed at least 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average erased earlier losses and ended the day 66.69 points higher 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 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.
Santa rally?
Some 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.
“With the market’s primary uptrends still intact, we are not giving up on the potential for a Santa Claus to come to Broad & Wall this year,” Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler, said in a note.
