U.S. Stocks Add To Last Friday's Strong Gains In Pre-Holiday Trading

(RTTNews) - After showing a lack of direction early in the session, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Monday. The major averages added to the strong gains posted on Friday, further offsetting the sell-off seen last Wednesday.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 climbed firmly into positive territory as the day progressed, while the narrower Dow posted a more modest gain.

The Nasdaq jumped 192.29 points or 1.0 percent to 19,764.89, the S&P 500 climbed 43.22 points or 0.7 percent to 5,974.07 and the S&P 500 rose 66.69 points or 0.2 percent to 42,906.95.

The advance by the tech-heavy Nasdaq came amid a rally by semiconductor stocks, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index surging by 3.1 percent.

Significant strength was also visible among computer hardware stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index.

Outside the tech sector, pharmaceutical stocks turned in a strong performance on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index up by 2.1 percent.

Overall trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves amid what is likely to be a relatively quiet week due to the Christmas Day holiday on Wednesday.

The markets are also scheduled to close earlier than usual for Christmas Eve on Tuesday, leading to below average trading activity.

Uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets may also have kept some traders on the sidelines following the volatility seen last week.

On the U.S. economic front, the Commerce Department released a report showing new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods slumped by much more than expected in the month of November.

The report said durable goods orders tumbled by 1.1 percent in November after climbing by an upwardly revised 0.8 percent in October.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to fall by 0.4 percent compared to the 0.3 percent increase that had been reported for the previous month.

Excluding a steep drop by orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders edged down by 0.1 percent in November after inching up by 0.2 percent in October. Ex-transportation orders were expected to rise by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the report said orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a key indicator of business spending, climbed by 0.7 percent in November after dipping by 0.1 percent in October.

A separate report released by the Conference Board showed an unexpected deterioration by consumer confidence in the month of December.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index tumbled to 104.7 in December from an upwardly revised 112.8 in November.

The pullback surprised economists, who had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 113.0 from the 111.7 originally reported for the previous month.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index jumped by 1.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang's Seng Index advanced by 0.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets turned in a mixed performance on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index closed just below the unchanged line and the German DAX Index dipped by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved back to the downside following the rebound seen last Friday. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, jumped 7.5 basis points to a nearly seven-month closing high of 4.599 percent.

Looking Ahead

A lack of major U.S. economic data may lead to choppy trading in the abbreviated session on Tuesday ahead of the Christmas Day holiday on Wednesday.