Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The major indices logged gains across the board on below-average volume at the NYSE. This session marks the official start to the "Santa Claus Rally" period (last five trading days of the year and first two trading days of the new year), which doesn't always result in gains for the market, but it did today.

The S&P 500 logged a 1.1% gain, the Dow Jones Industrial Average registered a 0.9% gain, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4%. Buying activity was broad based, leading 25 of the 30 Dow components to close higher and all 11 S&P 500 sectors to finish in the green.

The consumer discretionary sector logged the biggest gain by a decent margin, jumping 2.6% thanks to Tesla (TSLA 462.28, +31.68, +7.4%) and Amazon.com (AMZN 229.05, +3.99, +1.8%). Apple (AAPL 258.20, +2.93, +1.2%), Microsoft (MSFT 439.33, +4.08, +0.9%), NVIDIA (NVDA 140.22, +0.55, +0.4%), and Broadcom (AVGO 239.68, +7.33, +3.2%) helped propel the information technology sector to a 1.0% gain. 

American Airlines (AAL 17.35, +0.10, +0.6%) was a story stock after temporarily grounding all flights due to a technical issue. Other airline stocks fared better than American, leading the US Global JETS ETF (JETS) to settle 0.5% higher. American Airlines is not a component in the S&P 500 industrial sector (+0.8%), but its competitors like Delta Air Lines (DAL 62.56, +1.04, +1.7%) and United Airlines (UAL 101.16, +1.68, +1.7%) were some of the top performing components.

Treasury yields moved lower after today's $70 billion 5-yr note sale met strong demand. The 10-yr yield is down one basis point to 4.59% and the 2-yr yield is down one basis point to 4.34%. Note, the Treasury market closes at 2:00 p.m. ET.

There was no US economic data of note today. Markets are closed tomorrow for Christmas. Looking ahead to Thursday, market participants will receive the weekly jobless claims report at 8:30 ET.

• Nasdaq Composite: +33.4% YTD
• S&P 500: +26.6% YTD
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: +14.9% YTD
• S&P Midcap 400: +13.5% YTD
• Russell 2000: +11.5% YTD