The Santa Claus rally got off to a jolly start in Tuesday’s holiday-shortened session.
The Dow rose about 391 points, or 0.9%, through the 1 p.m. ET close. The S&P 500 closed up 1.1%. Only about 40 S&P 500 stocks declined on the day, and all 11 S&P 500 sectors closed higher.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4%. The Nasdaq Composite marked its best trading day before Christmas since 2000, when it rose 7.6% on Dec. 22, according to Dow Jones Market Data. (Christmas Day was on a Monday that year.)
Today marked the official start to the Santa Claus rally window, which includes the final five days of a year and the first two days of the following year. Since 1950, the S&P 500 has averaged a gain of 1.3% during this period, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It’s risen 77% of the time. The last time the S&P fell during the period was the one that began in December 2015.
Keeping up with the festive spirit, the prices of silver and gold were both up 0.2%.
Though markets were shaky last week in the wake of the latest forecasts from Federal Reserve officials, it seems Wall Street may be willing to shrug off worries about the path forward for inflation and interest rates, at least until the holidays pass by.
The stock market will be closed on Christmas Day in observance of the federal holiday in the U.S. You can read more about this week’s holiday trading hours here.
The U.S. bond market will stay open until 2 p.m. ET and be closed on Wednesday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note was recently up to 4.349%, while the 10-year yield was up to 4.599%.