The DOW JONES fell 0.10% to 42,797 points, while the S&P 500 rose 0.22% to 5,943 points. The Nasdaq advances 0.52% to 19,675 points.
Less trading volume than usual is expected due to the Christmas season. Tomorrow on Christmas Eve Wall Street will close earlier than usual, while on Christmas Wednesday all markets will remain closed.
Investors are hopeful that The so-called Santa Claus rally could help the market end 2024 on a high noteespecially after a tumultuous week. Since 1969, the S&P 500 has, on average, added 1.3% in the last five trading days of the year and the first two of 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. stocks, and the S&P 500 has risen 83% of the time in Decembers of presidential election years, according to Bank of America.
The market comes from a roller coaster that saw the DOW JONES suffer a 10-day losing streak, the longest since 1974. The index fell 1,100 points last Wednesday after the Federal Reserve signaled fewer rate cuts for 2025 than previously projected. A colder-than-expected inflation reading helped stocks recoup some of their losses last Friday.
So far this month, the DOW JONES is down 4.6% in December, while the S&P 500 is down 1.7%. The Nasdaq Composite, with a strong technological presence, has bucked the bearish trend and is up 1.8% in this period.
But despite this stormy December, he S&P 500 has risen 24.3% so far in 2024the Dow is up 13.7% and the Nasdaq is up 30.4%.
One factor that could contribute to boosting the market is the agreement reached late on Friday to extend the federal budgets until March 14avoiding the closure of financing from the federal government. The outgoing president of the United States, Joe Biden, sanctioned the law on Saturday after the approval agreement at dawn in the Senate.
Meanwhile, on the macroeconomic agenda, today the December consumer confidence index prepared by the Conference Board stands out, and which will be known with the market already open.
On the business front, increases of more than 8% for Xerox Holdings at the opening after the company announced the acquisition of printer manufacturer Lexmarkin an operation valued at 1.5 billion dollars. Xerox CEO Steve Bandrowczak said: “By combining our capabilities, we will be better positioned to drive long-term profitable growth and serve our customers.”
However, it must be taken into account that to finance the operation, Xerox will cut its annual dividend in half, from $1 to 50 cents. The takeover will presumably close in the second half of 2025.
Qualcomm shares rise 2% at market open after a federal jury in Delaware found that Qualcomm did not breach its agreement with Arm through its 2021 acquisition of Nuvia, a startup founded by three former Apple engineers . The decision stems from a two-year legal battle in which Qualcomm was accused of misusing chip designs that Arm licensed to Nuvia before its acquisition.
Rumble shares soar 42% after the video-sharing platform announced it has received a $775 million strategic investment from cryptocurrency firm Tether.
Investors will also have to keep an eye on Apple’s price. The giant of the bitten apple rises without much conviction in the New York morning, which makes its market capitalization ‘only’ 115,000 million dollars away from 4 trillion dollars, a figure never exceeded.
Meanwhile, the shares of Occidental Petroleum, SiriusXM and Verisign are registering increases of around 2% after Warren Buffett revealed last week that his investment vessel, Berkshire Hathaway, has increased its stakes in all of them.
In other news, News Corp has agreed sell its Australian cable television subsidiary Foxtel to British-owned sports network DAZN for 3.4 billion Australian dollars (2 billion US dollars), including debt. The company will get a board seat and a 6% stake in DAZN, a London-based platform available in North America, Europe and Asia controlled by Ukrainian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik.
In commodity markets, oil prices decline as traders remain concerned about expectations of lower demand. Benchmark Brent oil in Europe fell 0.32% to $72.33 per barrel, while US West Texas futures fell 0.22% to $69.33.
The dollar remains strong in the foreign exchange market, with the euro falling 0.29% against the greenback to leave the exchange rate at 1.0403 dollars for each single currency.
In fixed income, bond yields continue to rise amid rate expectations for 2025. The ten-year US bond offers a yield of 4.537%, while the two-year bond pays 4.321%.