S&P 500 posts 70th record close, Dow rises for sixth straight day

[OZER]

The S&P 500 rose Wednesday, eking out its 70th record close of 2021.

The benchmark index ticked up 0.1% to 4,793.06. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 90.42 points, or 0.3%, at 36,488.63. The blue-chip average closed at a record for the first time since November and posted its sixth-straight winning day. The Nasdaq Composite bucked the trend and ticked down 0.1% to 15,766.22.

The S&P 500 has closed at a record 28% of the time in 2021. This year has seen the second-highest number of record closes ever, behind 77 closing highs in 1995.

Investors are hoping to end the year on a high note with the S&P 500 returning more than 27% in 2021 and the Dow up more than 19%. The two indexes are both within striking distance of their all-time highs.

Historically, the market rises during the "Santa Claus rally" period — the last five trading days of December and the first two of January.

"The seasonals favor further gains in the market. The trading is a little thinner than it would otherwise be. ... We're coming off what seems to have been a good holiday season and I think that inspired some confidence," said Wells Fargo Investment Institute's Gary Schlossberg.

Biogen surged roughly 9.5% and led the S&P 500 after a report in South Korean media said the biotechnology company is in talks to be acquired by Samsung. The deal would reportedly be worth more than $40 billion. Biogen declined to comment on the report.

Walgreens, Nike and Home Depot were the top gainers on the Dow, each rising more than 1%.

On the downside, travel-related stocks struggled. American Airlines pulled back 2.6% and United Airlines fell 1.9%. Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line both closed lower. Boeing led decliners on the Dow with a 1.2% pullback.

Higher-growth technology stocks dipped as the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield jumped above the 1.5% level. Rising rates discount the value of future earnings and therefore can hit growth stocks like technology names particularly hard. AMD lost 3.2%.

Investors continue to monitor developments with the omicron Covid strain.

The U.S. has confirmed more than 4.5 million Covid cases this month, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That's well above November's tally of 2.54 million. The country's seven-day average of cases is also at 260,133.29 cases, more than 260% higher than the average from Nov. 28.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week shortened its isolation recommendation for people who test positive from 10 days to five if they don't have symptoms. Research from South Africa also suggests that omicron infections can boost immunity against the delta variant.

The market has shown resiliency in the past few weeks as traders weigh the omicron variant and potentially tighter monetary policy from the Federal Reserve next year. The S&P 500 is up roughly 5% for December.

Next year should bring normalizing economic conditions and slowing growth, Destination Wealth Management's Michael Yoshikami told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

"There's inevitably going to be a return to some sort of normalcy, although I think volatility will continue," Yoshikami said. "Three headwinds — inflation, what's happening with the pandemic, and, in our view, tax policy ... are going to bring things back down to more reasonable levels."

[rahar]

Get out of tether....

[SmitFish]

yes but in order to do so they would collapse the stock market and housing market.. this is all intentional to destroy the dollar to move to a digital fed currency for complete control.

[conveyance]

Bitcoin is the true asset without the fundamental market value.

[M_ES_silva]

You want to control inflation? Turn off the presses and let 50% be absorbed into the economy.

[jakeydave]

Please I need someone to help me trade or invest the forex or crypto market because I'm tired of trading in losses myself. I've blown my account twice and it's frustrating.

[masterogel2]

Broken capitalism.  Solution,  need to start over.  Burn the FIRE sector. Vote for a change    (pun) demand democracy NOW.org  banks produce  nothing,  zero,  just profits  DNC = RNC = the 1%  =  Wall street not the 99%  remember the 1970s ?  what it took to get change a revolution,  yeah

[Tuxx]

Crypto is a bubble.  Almost 20,000 cryptocurrencies!

[heide]

DESTROY UNIONS, LOWER MINIMUM WAGE AND TAX THE MIDDLE CLASS MORE.

[salisbury]

Sout African Dr said much ado about nothing. Fraud Fauci said death n destruction coming our way.......hahaha.

[furman]

Definition of Inflation (new): When you take an large amount of words to explain the interest rate concept AND ultimately at minute 13-14 get to the FEDs "plan" of WAIT AND SEE approach.  When this happens you have to question why this piece was created. What is true agenda?

[lau]

Why do Democrats always have to bring 'diversity' into the equation? They seem more obsessed with having quotas of women, ethnic minorities, LGBTs enforced in those crypto companies than having competent people, regardless of physical attributes and sexual orientations, developing and making digital assets available to everybody.

[sphenoid]

Yeah, raise interest rates by .25% every 6 months until you reach 2%, then stop! The reason raising rates screws up the economy is that they go too fast. Give those Fed governors each a lollypop and tell them to chill. 3% is too high and it will accelerate economic decline.  Productivity has increased per actual human man hours. If you go by dollars per productivity, it will be wrong every time. Union busting has contributed to income inequality. The Fed always overreacts in either direction. They actually cause instability.

[supergrilygamer]

Coinbase needs a brick and mortar for customer service.

[Hobojimmy]

Bitcoin > Terrorist Paper