US markets end mostly higher on Wednesday

30 Dec 2021 Evaluate

The US markets ended mostly in green on Wednesday despite lingering worries about the coronavirus' omicron variant. The S&P 500 eked out its 70th record close of 2021. The S&P 500 has closed at a record 28% of the time in 2021. This year has seen the second-highest number of record closes ever, behind 77 closing highs in 1995. However, traders seemed reluctant to continue making significant moves following recent strength in the markets, which has helped stocks recover from the sell-off seen in reaction to initial reports about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. On the sector front, Most of the major sectors ended the day showing only modest moves, contributing to the lackluster close by the broader markets. Airline stocks showed a substantial move to the downside, however, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index plunging by 2.5 percent.

Significant weakness was also visible among oil service stocks, as reflected by the 1.4 percent drop by the Philadelphia Oil Service Index. The weakness in the sector came despite an increase by the price of crude oil. On the economic data front, a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed an unexpected pullback in pending home sales in the month of November. NAR said its pending home sales index slid 2.2 percent to 122.4 in November after spiking 7.5 percent to 125.2 in October. The decrease surprised participants, who had expected pending home sales to rise by 0.5 percent. A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 90.42 points or 0.25 percent to 36,488.63 and S&P 500 was up by 6.71 points or 0.14 percent to 4,793.06, while Nasdaq fell 15.51 points or 0.1 percent to 15,766.22. 

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