4:10pm: Nasdaq on pace for best year since 2003
The Dow closed Thursday up 54 points, 0.1%, at 37,710, the Nasdaq Composite fell 4 points, less than 0.1%, to 15,095 and the S&P 500 gained 2 points to 4,783. The small-cap Russell 2000 index declined 8 points, 0.45, to 2,058.
The S&P 500's modest gain fell short of the index's all-time closing record of 4,797 points.
Meanwhile, following the penultimate trading day of 2023, the Nasdaq is on pace for its best year since 2003. All three indexes are projected to achieve their ninth-consecutive winning week.
“What we’re seeing now is the market exhibit extreme resilience,” despite some technical indicators suggesting overbought conditions, said Adam Sarhan, CEO of 50 Park Investments. “We have every chance in the world for the market to fall and it refuses to fall in a meaningful fashion. That tells me that the bulls remain in clear control.”
12:05pm: S&P 500 hovers near all-time high
The three major U.S. indexes drifted slightly higher at noon on hopes the Federal Reserve will begin to cut interest rates in the new year.
The modest gains were led by the Nasdaq which had added 0.2% at 15,125 points.
Having gained more than 44% in the year to date, the tech-laden index is on track to post its best year since 1999.
At midday, the S&P 500 was up 0.1% at 4,787 points, shy of its record closing level of 4,797 points.
The Dow Jones was up 0.1% at 37,703 points.
9:40am: Positive start
Wall Street opened strongly on the penultimate trading day of 2023, with weekly jobless claims surpassing expectations.
The Labor Department's report revealed a rise in initial claims for state unemployment benefits, reaching 218,000 for the week ended December 23, exceeding the expected 210,000 claims.
Analysts suggest that the data indicates signs of economic slowing, making a case for more Federal Reserve accommodation sooner.
Despite modest gains and losses in the previous session, all three indexes are on track for monthly, quarterly, and annual gains. The focus is on the S&P 500, with a closing above the January record close seen as confirmation of entering a bull market.
At the open, the Dow Jones was up 0.1% at 37,710 points, the S&P 500 added 0.2% to reach 4,790, as did the Nasdaq, which reached 15,130 points for a 0.2% gain.
Swissquote senioe analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya suggests that the US has experienced the most substantial two-month easing in financial conditions in its history, driven by the impressive sovereign rally and rising expectations of Fed rate cuts.
“It appears that the latest easing in the US financial conditions has been more powerful than the ones observed following the announcements of the Quantitative Easing programs from the Fed. And the rapidly loosening financial conditions are hardly compatible with a sustainably low inflation… even less so as the geopolitical tensions started to disrupt global trade ways in a way that could be inflationary.”
In early trading, US-listed shares of Chinese companies, including Alibaba Holdings, PDD Holdings, and JD.com Inc (NASDAQ:JD), rose as China's blue-chip stocks experienced a significant jump on strong foreign inflows. However, CytoSorbents faced a 36.2% drop as its surgical bleeding reduction device did not meet the main goal in a study.