Stocks set new records on Wednesday, as both the Dow (INDU) and the S&P 500 (SPX) finished at all-time highs.
Although the S&P hit a record as recently as Monday, the Dow hasn’t reached a new high since early November.
The Dow finished up 91 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P closed 0.1% higher.
The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) finished down 0.1%.
Although the gains were broad-based, travel-related stocks, including American Airlines (AAL) and United Airlines (UAL), didn’t fare so well Wednesday, amid sweeping cancellations and worries about the Omicron variant.
The rise of Covid infections due to the highly infectious Omicron variant continues to be a concern as pandemic restrictions returned across various European countries. The new variant could take its toll on the already battered supply chain, which would be bad news for consumers, the recovery and the market as well.
Still, it’s a quiet final week of the year for Wall Street with little in the way of economic data and many market participants out of the office. This is helping stocks broadly stay on course.
Stocks rise in the last, thinly traded week of the year so often that there’s a name for it: It’s known as a Santa Claus rally.
