Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on December 18, 2024.
Spencer Pratt | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were relatively unchanged on Monday night after starting the holiday-shortened trading week with all three major stock averages in the green.
S&P500 futures Although it rose by about 0.1%, Nasdaq 100 futures It traded just above the flatline. Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average also improved by 34 points, or about 0.1%.
This comes amid expectations for a more toned-down week of trading activity. On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange will close at 1pm ET for Christmas Eve, while the bond market will close at 2pm. The Wednesday market is also closed for Christmas.
Monday was a relatively sparse trading day. S&P500 It has increased by about 0.7%, Nasdaq Composite The stock closed approximately 1% higher. 30 shares Dow also ended at nearly 0.2%.
Tech companies and semiconductors were among the big winners of the day, pushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq higher. meta platform rose by more than 2%, broadcom rose more than 5%, and Nvidia rose 3.7%.
In other places, honda and Xerox Each ended the session more than 12% higher. The Japanese automaker announced that it has entered formal merger talks with fellow Japanese automaker Nissan. Xerox announced it will acquire printer maker Lexmark in a deal worth $1.5 billion.
However, the day was still affected by weak economic indicators. Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index It dropped to 104.7. In December. This number was lower than the Dow Jones forecast of 113.0 and marked the index's lowest level ever. September reading 98.7's. In addition, we received orders for durable consumer goods. 1.1% drop in NovemberThis was the largest month-on-month decrease since June.
Will there be frost for the Santa Claus rally?
With fewer trading days, some investors are hoping for a Santa Claus rally to cap off an already strong year for the market. And that's not unusual at all. According to the Stock Traders Almanac, S&P500 Going back to 1969, the average rise of 1.3% between the last five business days of the year and the first two business days of January.
However, Jay Hatfield of Infrastructure Capital Advisors expects the market to be a little stagnant over the next few days. He is sticking with his target of 6,000 for the S&P 500 index by the end of 2024, which would mean the market-wide index would rise only 0.4% from Monday's close.
“Santa Claus may gather, but it's not very powerful.” [of] “We are market neutral,” the company's CEO told CNBC.
