S&P 500 close to all-time high
Slight Christmas rally on Wall Street
December 26, 2023, 11:23 p.m
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The hope of interest rate cuts in the near future continues and with it the positive mood on Wall Street. The US indices continue to improve slightly, with the Dow being supported primarily by the strong Intel share price.
US stock markets closed with gains on Tuesday in anticipation of an imminent interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve. All three major U.S. stock indexes rose in thin trading on the first day of trading in the final week of the year, with the S&P 500 hitting its highest level since January 2022. It went on Wall Street Dow Jones Index the standard values with an increase of 0.43 percent at 37,546 points from trading. The broader one S&P 500 was quoted 0.43 percent higher at 4774 points. The S&P 500 is poised for its biggest quarterly profit in three years and is just one percent away from its all-time high in January 2022. The technology stock market index Nasdaq gained 0.55 percent to 15,074 points.
“Everyone is still enjoying the fruits of last week’s rally and expectations of significantly lower interest rates,” said Michael James, head of equity trading at Wedbush Securities. The three major US indices closed little changed on Friday, but posted gains for the eighth week in a row. According to a survey, 83 percent of traders expect the Fed to cut interest rates by at least 25 basis points in March.
Crude oil prices are rising
Energy stocks recorded the largest percentage increase. They benefited from the rising crude oil prices, which had climbed to its highest level of the current month due to the threat of further escalation in the Middle East conflict. At the same time, optimism about Fed interest rate cuts fueled hopes of higher demand.
Among the individual values were Intel shares among the biggest winners. The semiconductor company’s shares rose by 4.0 percent. Intel will receive $3.2 billion from Israel to build a factory in the south of the country.
The shares of the English football club Manchester United rose 2.2 percent in New York after British entrepreneur Jim Ratcliffe announced his entry as a minority shareholder on Sunday.