(New York) The New York Stock Exchange was rising Monday at the start of its last week of the year in a poor market, the S&P 500 taking the road to a new record.
At 2 p.m. GMT, the Dow Jones was up 0.25%, the NASDAQ 0.63%, and the S&P 500 was up 0.52%.
Investors continued to assess the impact of the spread of the less virulent but more contagious Omicron variant on the economy: Airlines’ titles fell sharply after thousands of flights were canceled around the world.
As of the last session Thursday, the Dow Jones index gained 0.55% to 35,950.56 points, the technology-heavy NASDAQ gained 0.85% to 15,653.37 points and the S&P 500 advanced 0.62% to register at 4,725.79 points, an absolute record, the 68e of the year for the extended index.
Travel-related stocks were in bad shape when they opened after thousands of flight cancellations in the United States as the pandemic led to a shortage of flight attendants.
United Airlines lost 2.25% to 43.88 dollars, Delta dropped 2.19% to 38.44 dollars and American Airlines 2.46% to 17.81 dollars.
“These industries are hit hard because of the 10-day isolation recommended by the health authorities (CDC) after a contagion, which leads to general cancellations due to a shortage of personnel,” said Schwab analysts.
For their part, cruise passengers were taking water as cases of COVID-19 were identified on several ships over the weekend.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean lost more than 3%, Norwegian Cruise dropped 4%.
Overall, the market was nonetheless trying to capitalize on the pre-Christmas momentum, “investors continuing to ignore concerns around the Omicron variant, knowing that the risks of hospitalization are much lower,” added the Schwab analysts in a note.
“The S&P 500 seems ready to reach a new historic record”, after that of Thursday, assures for his part Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.
Few indicators were expected this week but the Mastercard Spending Pulse barometer showed that American consumers were spending lavishly for the holidays, a good point for activity.
Purchases (excluding autos) climbed 8.1% in a six-week period leading up to Christmas, from a year earlier, the largest increase in 17 years.
Investors did not seem to want to make history lie by starting in the green the traditional week of end of the year, baptized “the Bond of Santa Claus” (Santa Claus Rally) and popularized by the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
“Since 1945, three times out of four, the S&P 500 has enjoyed a favorable price performance over the last seven days of the year, of ‘1.2% on average,’ says Sam Stovall, head of strategy investments at CFRA.
Despite the collapse of the travel sector, the eleven sectors of the S&P were in the green, driven by information technology (+ 0.88%), communications (+ 0.65%) and consumer products ( + 0.58%).
Market heavyweights led the rise such as Apple (+ 0.64% to $ 177), Tesla (+ 6.7% to $ 1084), Facebook (Meta, + 2.05% to $ 324).
Bond yields edged down to 1.47% from 1.49% for 10-year US Treasuries.