Wall Street advances with broad gains, buoyed by tech stocks

U.S. stocks climbed to kick off the ‌holiday-shortened ​week, buoyed partly by a continued rebound in ‌technology stocks in a broad advance that lifted almost all of the 11 S&P 500 sectors.

The rally started ​late last week and was driven by Micron Technology’s blowout forecasts and a cooler-than-expected inflation report, which has left the S&P 500 and Dow less than 1% ‍from their record closing levels set on December ​11.

Nvidia shares rose 1.2% as the biggest lift to the benchmark S&P 500. Reuters reported the company has told Chinese clients it aims to start ​shipping its second-most powerful ⁠AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February.

Micron climbed 3.8%, while most other chipmakers also advanced, with the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index up 1.1%.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s going to go much higher; it’s going to continue to churn,” said Ken Polcari, partner and chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth in Jupiter, Florida.

“Today we’re trading higher, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we back off again and then ‌we just rally again right into about where we are.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 233.48 points, or 0.48%, to 48,367.72, the S&P ​500 ‌gained 41.16 points, or 0.60%, to ‍6,875.66 and the Nasdaq Composite ⁠gained 127.10 points, or 0.55%, to 23,435.00.

December has historically been a strong period for stock markets. Since 1950, the Santa Claus rally has been reflected by the S&P 500 rising by an average of 1.3% over the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days in January, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.

This year, that period starts on Wednesday and runs through January 5.

Optimism about AI, signs of a resilient U.S. economy, and expectations for monetary policy easing have outweighed concerns about U.S. tariffs, helping put the three main U.S. indexes on course for their third consecutive year of gains. The S&P 500 is ​up more than 15% this year.

Ten of the 11 S&P sectors traded higher, with materials and energy among the best performers as commodity prices jumped. The tech sector added 0.5%.

Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE volatility index, hit its lowest level since late August.

Trading volumes were light and were likely to thin out further as the holiday approaches. U.S. stock markets will close at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Wednesday and shut on Thursday for Christmas.

However, economic data, including the preliminary reading of third-quarter GDP, December consumer confidence data, and weekly jobless claims, are scheduled for release this week, offering insights about the health of the U.S. economy as well as hints about the monetary policy path.

“Tomorrow’s GDP number is going to be the last real piece of economic data that anyone really cares about,” said Polcari.

Among other movers, Tesla gained 2.5% to an all-time high after CEO Elon Musk’s ​2018 pay package was restored by the Delaware Supreme Court.

Warner Bros Discovery rose 3.5% after Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison agreed to provide a personal guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for Paramount Skydance’s offer to acquire the company. Paramount’s shares rose 5%.

Clearwater Analytics Holdings rallied 8.2% after a group of private equity firms led by Permira and Warburg Pincus clinched a deal to acquire the ​investment and accounting software maker for about $8.4 billion, including debt.