© Reuters. A Christmas tree pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange
By Devik Jain and Supriya R
(Reuters) US stocks rose on Wednesday, led by energy stocks, as investors bet on a strong economic recovery in 2021 as a result of the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and hopes for greater fiscal support.
In the last few weeks of the year, there has been a shift towards undervalued equities benefiting from an economic boom next year, with sectors such as banking, energy and materials surpassing their peers.
Heavyweight technology stocks, the most popular this year, were sold in the rush to cycle.
Still, short-term expectations of larger stimulus investigations have faded after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a quick vote to support President Donald Trump’s call for increased COVID-19 relief tests.
“We’re having a bit of a hangover after approving the stimulus package Monday,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.
“It’s a bit muted because the $ 2,000 additional package is apparently still there, but has been killed by the Senate for the time being.”
Trading volumes were subdued and are expected to be low in the last two days of the year, which was a rollercoaster ride for the shares.
It is on the verge of an annual profit of nearly 16%, after trillions of dollars of stimulus and progress in vaccine development has helped the benchmark index bounce back more than 70% since the end of March.
The technology Nasdaq, which was the first one of Wall Street’s indices to turn positive for the year, is also the best annual performance since 2009, with the most gains led by FAANG shares – Apple Inc (NASDAQ :), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ :), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ :), Netflix Inc (NASDAQ 🙂 and Alphabet (NASDAQ 🙂 Inc.
At 12:21 ET it was 164.52 points, or 0.54%, at 30,500.19, the S&P 500 rose 11.99 points or 0.32% at 3,739.03, and the 41.11 points or 0.32% at 12,891.34.
Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose, with energy, materials and industry the most.
Britain has increased its risk appetite and approved the use of AstraZeneca (NASDAQ 🙂 and the COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford University, which starts administering on Monday.
Meanwhile, the first known American case of a highly contagious coronavirus variant discovered in Britain has been detected in Colorado.
Payment stock processor Mastercard Inc (NYSE 🙂 rose 2.5% after Stephens raised its price target on the stock in hopes of boosting cross-border sentiment.
U.S. travel-related stocks have risen as stimulus aid, and the onset of mass vaccinations has raised hopes for a recovery for the industry that has been hit hardest by pandemic-fueled restrictions.
The S&P 1500 airline index added 1.1%, while cruise operators Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE 🙂 Holdings Ltd, Carnival (NYSE 🙂 Corp and Royal Caribbean (NYSE 🙂 Cruises Ltd rose between 1.5% and 2.3%.
Prior issues have the number of declines more than a 2.95-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and with a 2.48-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 21 new highs of 52 weeks and one new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 107 new highs and 23 new lows.