Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, USA, December 11, 2023.
Brendan Mcdermid | Portal
U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday to enter the final week of the year as traders expected 2023 to end on a positive note.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 50 points.
Intel rose nearly 3% after the Israeli government gave the chipmaker a $3.2 billion subsidy for a $25 billion factory in the south of the country. Manchester United rose 2% after British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe struck a deal to buy a quarter of the football club.
US markets were closed on Monday for the Christmas holiday.
Wall Street is heading into the shortened holiday week with momentum after the S&P 500 posted its eighth straight weekly gain last week, its longest streak since 2017. The Dow and Nasdaq Composite also posted an eight-week winning streak.
The S&P 500 also entered Tuesday’s session within striking distance of record levels. The broad market index is less than 1% below its closing all-time high of 4,796.56 in January 2022.
The moves come as investors cheer recent data showing inflation nearing the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. Expectations of possible interest rate cuts have also given the stock markets a boost in recent weeks.
Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, noted that November’s PCE deflator report, released Friday, showed “inflation is falling like a stone.”
“The overall inflation story is consistent with our thesis and that supports stocks. Because if the Fed starts to worry about deflation (which it isn’t right now), then the Fed will want to change its stance,” Lee said in a note last week.