US market close: S&P rallies before bell, crypto mostly down
By Joseph Toppe
21:10, 29 December 2021
The major indexes wobbled during trading on Wednesday until finishing mixed just before the session closed.
The S&P 500 went up 0.1% to 4,793.06 and a new high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 90.42 points, or 0.3%, to 36,488.63, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.1% just before the bell.
Halfway through the session, the Dow clung to a small gain around 0.10%, the S&P had fallen near 0.5% after starting the day in the green, while the Nasdaq Composite was roughly 0.30% down.
Wall Street open on New Year’s Eve
New York Stock Exchange’s Rule 7.2 dictates stock markets close on the Friday before a holiday falling on a Saturday and on a Monday after a holiday falling on a Sunday, unless unusual business conditions exist, such as the end of a monthly or yearly accounting period.
According to the clause, the markets will be open on Friday 31 December because it signals the end of a monthly, quarterly, and yearly accounting period, which requires a full day’s trading.
This last occurred on 1 January 2011 when the holiday was also on a Saturday.
What is your sentiment on MSFT?
Winners and losers: Tech shares close up and down
In the tech industry, shares of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) fell 3.19%, while Nvidia went down 1.06%.
In other tech stock, shares of Apple is up 0.05%, Meta Platforms is off by 0.95%, as Microsoft improved 0.21% and Amazon dipped 0.86% lower.
Shares of Tesla are down around 0.21% after financial filings published yesterday revealed CEO Elon Musk sold another 934,090 shares, representing approximately $1.02bn of the Tesla chief’s stake in the electric car builder.
After rebounding on Tuesday, travel stocks plummeted Wednesday as shares of American Airlines are 2.64% off, Delta Airlines is 1.19% lower, while Southwest Airlines is down 0.31% and United Airlines is 1.86% in negative territory.
Rising US cases of the Omicron variant have shares for vaccine maker Pfizer 0.72% lower, while Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are both higher by 2.67% and 0.70%.
Oil: Crude peaks higher midweek
Oil futures are up on Wednesday with West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery was trading 58 cents higher, or 0.8%, to settle at $76.56 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while February Brent crude, the global benchmark, was trading 29 cents, or 0.4%, higher to close at $79.23 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
Although crude prices rose, energy stocks dipped lower as shares of Exxon Mobil sank 0.88%, ConocoPhillips dipped 0.27%, while Hess and Chevron fell 0.81% and 0.51% respectively.
Gold: Yellow metal lower, still breaks $1,800 mark
Gold futures went down on Wednesday with February gold trading down $5.10, or 0.3%, to end at $1,805.80 an ounce.
Gold hit an intraday low of $1,789.10
Crypto: Digital assets trade flat
Although mixed for most of the session, cryptocurrencies are more even on Wednesday with Bitcoin down 0.65%, Ethereum off 2.17 %, while Litecoin and Monero are both higher by 1.60% and 2.78% respectively.
Bitcoin Cash is also down 1.64%.
US buck gives more ground to Pound
The yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note rose to 1.542% from 1.480% on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, one US dollar equals $1.28 of the Canadian dollar, $0.88 of the euro, and $0.91 of the Swiss franc, falling slightly from its $0.92 holding last week.
Read more: No New Year's holiday for Wall Street
Markets in this article
Related topics