US stock futures contracts increased on Tuesday, suggesting that key benchmarks could extend their march a day after it closed on records.
Futures linked to the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5%. Both indices closed at the highest high on Monday. Contracts on the Nasdaq-100 index climbed 0.4%, indicating that technology stocks will also rise.
Stocks are rising in the last days of the year, driven in part by the cheap money released by central banks and governments to protect the world economy from the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 index climbed more than 15% this year, building on its 29% rise in 2019, while the Nasdaq composite index rose more than 43% in 2020 alone.
‘Some people get carried away by the race for records. The market momentum pushes and exceeds these record highs, ”said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro research at ING Group. “These are fictitious thresholds, but metrics can lead their own lives and that’s happening now.”
Trading volumes are also usually thinner in the last days of the year, with many people on holiday, which could potentially amplify market movements.