Since the start of 2024, the S&P 500 has never once closed below its 200-day moving average, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Barring a sharp selloff between now and the end of the year, this would be only the 12th time since 1952 that this has happened.

Some of the biggest winners were mega-cap tech stocks, with Tesla up by 6% while Broadcom, Netflix, and Amazon each gained about 2%.

US stocks looked set for a mostly muted open to a final, shortened trading session before the Christmas holiday,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 66.69 points or 0.2% to end at 42,906.95 for its third straight daily gain, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 went up 43.22 points or 0.7% to finish at 5,974.07.

Stocks are broadly higher in trading on Wall Street, led by gains in Big Tech stocks. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% Tuesday.

Stocks shook off a choppy start to finish higher Monday, as Wall Street kicked off a holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 ended 0.7% higher after having been down 0.5% in the early going. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also recovered from an early slide to eke out a 0.2% gain. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1%.

Tuesday’s U.S. market “Santa rally” comes as the stock market enters what’s historically been a very cheerful season. The last five trading days of each year, plus the first two in the new year, have brought an average gain of 1.3% since 1950.

U.S. stock indexes edged higher in morning trading Tuesday, as gains for some Big Tech stocks made up for weakness elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 rose 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 14 points,