Stocks' rise lifts Nasdaq to new record high; Dow nears 20,000

By Associated Press

Dec. 27, 2016 4:05 PM PT

A day of quiet trading on Wall Street ended Tuesday with the Dow Jones industrial average inching closer to 20,000 and a record high for the Nasdaq composite.

Materials and technology companies led U.S. stocks slightly higher overall. Energy companies rose as the price of crude oil moved higher. Utilities and phone company stocks edged lower.

Trading was light after the long Christmas weekend, with fewer than 1.9 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. That’s the lightest full day of trading since October 2015.

“Markets are moving toward 20,000 and bond yields are up; there’s a little bit of buoyancy in oil prices,” said Erik Davidson, chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank. But, Davidson said, “trading is very, very thin.”

The Dow edged up 11.23 points, or 0.1%, to 19,945.04. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 5.09 points, or 0.2%, to 2,268.88. The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 24.75 points, or 0.5%, to 5,487.44; its previous record high was 5,483 on Dec. 20.

The three major indexes are on pace for solid gains for 2016, led by the Dow, which is up 14.5%. The S&P 500 is on track for an 11% gain, while the Nasdaq is headed for a 9.6% gain. Small-company stocks are up even more. The Russell 2000 is up 21% so far this year.

Although little new major economic or company data are expected this week as 2016 winds to a close, investors did get some fresh figures on consumer confidence and home prices Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index climbed to 113.7 in December, up from 109.4 in November and the highest since it reached 114 in August 2001. The latest reading is another sign consumers are confident in the aftermath of a divisive presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index rose 5.6% in October, as buyers bidding for scarce properties drove home prices higher.

“The tone to the data was certainly positive and speaks to underscore why we’d have a little bit of a bid to the market this afternoon,” said Bill Northey, chief investment officer of the Private Client Group at U.S. Bank.

Several homebuilders posted gains after the reports on home prices and consumer confidence, which bode well for home sales. Lennar led the pack, climbing 1.9% to $43.36. D.R. Horton advanced 1.3% to $27.93. PulteGroup rose 1.3% to $18.62.

Nvidia posted the biggest gain in the S&P 500 index. The Santa Clara chipmaker surged 6.9% to $117.32.

Traders also gave a boost to other technology stocks, including Fitbit, which climbed 7.4% to $7.83 after the San Francisco company’s fitness tracker app became the second-most downloaded in the iTunes store.

Some drug companies also made big moves.

Endologix plunged 26.7% to $5.27 after the Irvine drugmaker said that the Food and Drug Administration has ordered it to cease shipping a device used to treat abdominal aortic aneurysms because of manufacturing problems. The company said the problem affects some sizes of its AFX Endovascular AAA system only and that no clinical problems have been reported.

Biogen rose 1.2% to $291.12, and Ionis Pharmaceuticals jumped 3.2% to $55.12 on news that the FDA approved a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disorder. The FDA approved the drug, Spinraza, late Friday. Biogen is handling marketing for the drug, which was developed by Carlsbad-based Ionis.

Several markets overseas closed slightly higher. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 each rose 0.2%. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 was nearly flat. The Kospi of South Korea rose 0.2%, while India’s Sensex gained 0.8%. Markets in Britain, Hong Kong and Australia were closed.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 88 cents, or 1.7%, to $53.90 a barrel. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 93 cents, or 1.7%, to $56.09 a barrel.

Natural gas futures rose 10 cents, or 2.7%, to $3.76 per 1,000 cubic feet. Wholesale gasoline rose 3 cents to $1.65 a gallon, and heating oil rose 4 cents to $1.70 a gallon.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.56% from 2.54% late Friday. Markets were closed Monday for the holiday.

In currency trading, the dollar rose to 117.45 yen from 117.26. The euro fell to $1.0458 from $1.0452.

The price of gold rose $5.20 to $1,138.80 an ounce. Silver rose 23 cents to $15.99 an ounce. Copper rose 4 cents to $2.52 a pound.

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UPDATES:

4:05 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comments.

1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with the close of markets.

7:50 a.m.: This article was updated with market prices and context.

This article was originally published at 6:50 a.m.