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

Coherus Oncology

27/12/2023 21:23

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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
    

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      Indexes up: Dow 0.30%, S&P 0.14%, Nasdaq 0.16%
    

  
 (Updates with closing prices)
    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. 
  
        The three major U.S. stock indexes oscillated between
modest gains and losses throughout the session but finished up
for the day. All are on course for monthly, quarterly, and
annual gains.
  
    The S&P 500 ended 0.3% below its record closing high of
4,796.56 reached on Jan. 3, 2022. The Dow notched a new record
closing high.
    "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.
    The Dow Jones Industrial Average  .DJI  rose 111.19 points,
or 0.3%, to 37,656.52, the S&P 500  .SPX  gained 6.83 points, or
0.14%, to 4,781.58 and the Nasdaq Composite  .IXIC  added 24.60
points, or 0.16%, to 15,099.18.
        Among the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, real estate
 .SPLRCR  enjoyed the largest percentage gain, while energy
shares  .SPNY , weighed down by falling 
    crude prices
      CLc1 , lost the most.
  
    Shares of Bit Digital  BTBT.O  jumped 18.6% following the
bitcoin miner's announcement that it plans to double its mining
operations.
    Coherus BioSciences  CHRS.O  rose 23.6% 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 49.6% after the
drug developer agreed to sell its inflammatory bowel disease
drug to an undisclosed company.
    Cytokinetics  CYTK.O  soared 82.6% 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 .
    Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.86-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.46-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
        The S&P 500 posted 50 new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 218 new highs and 60 new lows.  
  
        Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.96 billion shares,
compared with the 12.67 billion average for the full session
over the last 20 trading days.
  

 (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;))