Wall St. heads to Christmas holidays with robust gains as S&P 500 hits record

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On Thursday, a swathe of major stock indices in the Wall St. had closed out the session with modest gains, extending their latest leg of raging rallies into a third straight session in a row, while a barrage of upbeat economic data coupled with an ease in concerns over a newly identified pandemic variant, B.1.1.529, drove investors’ morale higher in a holiday-thinned session as market participants headed to the Christmas holidays.

In point of fact, in the day’s Newtonian upsurge in the Wall Street was almost entirely catapulted by a cascade of upbeat economic data as beforementioned, while a US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval for Merck’s at-home pandemic Rx for high-risk patients had added to further bullish breeze.

On top of that, earlier in the day, US Labor Department data had unveiled that the number of Americans filing for first-time state unemployment claims remained unchanged at a pre-pandemic level, while US Consumer Spending jumped 0.6 per cent last month, illustrating a likely robust year-end for a rumbling US economy following a comparatively dismal third-quarter.

In tandem, gains were mostly led by S&P 500’s consumer discretionary alongside industrials sub-indices, as a robust consumer spending last month coupled with a flabbergasting rise in US consumer confidence in December had spurred up hopes of a sustenance in robust household spending deeper into 2022.

Wall St. leaps as S&P 500 ends at record closing high

Citing statistics, in the day’s Wall St. closure, trade-sensitive Dow rose 0.55 per cent to 35,950.56 and benchmark S&P 500 gained 0.62 per cent to wind up the session at a record closing high of 4,725.79, while tech-heavy Nasdaq leapt 0.85 per cent to 15,653.37.

Over the week, Dow added 2.1 per cent and S&P 500 soared 3.1 per cent, while tech-heavy Nasdaq torrented as much as 4.4 per cent. Meanwhile, addressing to a Wall Street that had vroomed over most parts of the holiday quarter, a co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, Mathew Miskin said, “…Investors have likely continued to see pretty strong economic growth and pretty positive developments as it relates to healthcare innovation around COVID…causing investors to look to allocate capital as they close out the year. ”