Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange on December 18, 2024.
Spencer Pratt | Getty Images
U.S. stock futures were relatively flat Monday night, with the three major indexes kicking off the holiday-shortened trading week in the green.
S&P 500 Index Futurestogether with Nasdaq 100 Futurestrading above the flat line. Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average Up 34 points, about 0.1%.
Trading activity is expected to be more subdued this week. On Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange closed early on Christmas Eve at 1 p.m. ET, while the bond market closed at 2 p.m.
Trading was relatively light on Monday, S&P 500 Index Up about 0.7% Nasdaq Index It closed up about 1%. 30 stocks Dow Chemical It also closed up nearly 0.2%.
Technology and semiconductor stocks were the day’s big winners, boosting the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. meta platform rose more than 2% and Broadcom rose more than 5%, while Nvidia gained 3.7%.
elsewhere, Honda and copy The closing gains on each trading day exceeded 12%. The Japanese automaker announced that it has entered into formal merger talks with Japanese automaker Nissan. Xerox said it would acquire printer maker Lexmark for $1.5 billion.
Still, the day was marred by weak economic data. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index Dropped to 104.7 December. The reading was below expectations for the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 113.0, marking the first time the index has Reading in September 98.7. In addition, durable goods orders Down 1.1% in Novemberwhich was the largest month-on-month decline since June.
Santa Claus rally coming soon?
With few trading days, some investors are hoping the Santa Claus rally caps off an already strong year for the market. This isn’t entirely unusual. According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, S&P 500 Index Since 1969, the last five trading days of this year and the first two trading days of January have averaged a gain of 1.3%.
But Jay Hatfield of Infrastructure Capital Advisors called for some market lull in the coming days. He stuck to his 2024 year-end target of 6,000 for the S&P 500, which would mean the broader index would rise just 0.4% from Monday’s close.
“We may have Santa Claus rallies, but they are not very powerful,” the company’s CEO told CNBC. “We are neutral on the market.”
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