Stocks end the day higher helped by buying into the close | Forexlive

The major US indices are in the day with gains in what was an up-and-down session, but with buying into the close.

The day also ends the so-called “Santa Claus Rally” period. That period covers five days before the end of the year and two days after the new year. For the S&P, the index gained 0.80%. Put a check mark in the win column for 2022.

The final numbers for the major indices are showing:

• Dow Industrial Average rose by 133.40 points or 0.4% at 33269.78
• S&P index rose by 28.79 points or 0.75% at 3852.92
• NASDAQ index rose 71.79 points or 0.69% at 10458.77
• Russell 2000 index 21.80 points or 1.25% at 1772.54

For the Santa Claus Rally period:

• Dow rose by 0.73%
• S&P rose by 0.80%
• Nasdaq fell by -0.17%

Looking at the 11 sectors of the S&P, all ended the day with all ended the day with gains gains

The biggest winning sectors were:

• real estate +2.29%
• materials +1.74%
• financials +1.59%

The laggard sectors included

• energy +0.06%
• healthcare +0.25%
• information technology +0.26%

The stocks rallied despite a sharp fall in Microsoft shares. The price of MSFT fell -$10.48 or -4.37% to 229.10. The low reached 225.96 which was the lowest since November 9 before rebounding modestly into the close. The catalyst was a downgrade by UBS to neutral from by on the back of weakness in cloud.