The Dow closed slightly higher on Thursday while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed lower in the second day of a so-called Santa Claus rally period.

Stocks have seen a stellar 2024, but the S&P 500 is in danger of a rare December loss. It’s all riding on the so-called Santa Claus rally.

Yes. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will both operate on half-day schedules, closing at 1 p.m., while bond markets will shut down at 2 p.m., and major U.S. financial markets will stay closed until Thursday’s normal trading session.

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

Wall Street stocks headed lower on Thursday and U.S. benchmark Treasury yields scaled the highest level since April in light, post-Christmas trading.

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

US stocks traded mixed on Monday, with investors eyeing a potential year-end rally and the path for interest rates in 2025. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped in the early morning, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was in the green.

Learn all about the Santa Claus Rally, a seasonal stock market trend with historical significance. Discover why it happens and some tips.

Wall Street is eager for a so-called Santa Claus rally to propel the S&P 500—up about 25% this year through Monday's close—to new highs. According to Wall Street lore, the stock market consistently rises during the final five trading days of the year and the first two sessions of the next. This year, that stretch starts today.

Wall Street's main indexes all closed higher on Tuesday, with gains in megacap and growth stocks bolstering benchmarks in a truncated Christmas Eve session. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite scored four straight sessions of gains,