US STOCKS-Wall St ekes out modest gains as S&P 500 hovers near all-time closing high

Coherus Oncology

27/12/2023 21:00

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      Bit Digital climbs on plans to expand mining operations
    

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      Coherus BioSciences gains on drug-delivery device approval
    

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      S&P 500 yet to confirm bull market
    

  
 (Updates to market close)
    By Stephen Culp
       NEW YORK, Dec 27 (Reuters) - 
    U.S. stocks closed slightly higher in languid trading on
Wednesday, with little market-moving news to fuel conviction as
the S&P 500 hovered just below bull market confirmation. 
  
        Volume was light and the three major U.S. stock indexes
oscillated between modest gains and losses throughout the
session. All three remained on course for monthly, quarterly,
and annual gains.
    The S&P 500 hovered less than 1% below its record closing
high of 4,796.56 reached on Jan. 3, 2022. The Dow notched a new
record closing high.
        According to preliminary data, the S&P 500
 .SPX  gained 7.75 points, or 0.16%, to end at 4,782.50 points,
while the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  gained 27.40 points, or
0.18%, to 15,101.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
 .DJI  rose 117.94 points, or 0.31%, to 37,663.27.
  
    "When you have very few catalysts and minimal trading
activity you tend to see continuation of the trends," said Chuck
Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services
in Hammond, Indiana.
    "We’ve got three days left of trading in the year," Carlson
added. "That means three days left of tax harvesting, three days
of portfolio window dressing ... those sort of things can get
magnified because of the lack of trading volume."
    Reaching a new record close would confirm the bellwether
index entered a bull market when it reached the bear market
closing trough in October 2022.
    "Those kind of milestones are important because they can
generate activity for investors who are sitting on the fence,"
Carlson said.
    In the wake of Friday's cooler-than-expected U.S. PCE price
index data, bets are firming that the Fed will start issue its
first rate cut as soon as March, which is supporting interest
rate sensitive shares and giving Wall Street's major indexes an
upward bias.
    At last glance, financial markets have priced in a 73.9%
probability that policymakers will reduce the Fed funds target
rate by 25 basis points at the conclusion of their March policy
meeting, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
    Shares of Bit Digital  BTBT.O  jumped following the bitcoin
miner's announcement that it plans to double its mining
operations.
    Coherus BioSciences  CHRS.O  rose after the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration approved its drug delivery device for its
infection-fighting treatment.
    First Wave BioPharma shares  FWBI.O  surged after the drug
developer agreed to sell its inflammatory bowel disease drug to
an undisclosed company.
    Cytokinetics  CYTK.O  soared after its experimental heart
disease drug met the main goal of late-stage study, putting it
on track to compete with a rival treatment from Bristol Myers
Squibb  BMY.N .

 (Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Shubham
Batra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru; Editing by David
Gregorio)
 ((stephen.culp@thomsonreuters.com; 646-223-6076;))