Opening Bell: After S&P 500 New Record, Futures, World Stocks Extend Santa Rally

 | Dec 28, 2021 11:39

  • First potential signs of easing inflation could be appearing in Japan
  • S&P 500 notches 69th record of the year
  • h2 Key Events/h2

    Even amid spiking Omicron cases worldwide, US futures for the Dow Jones Futures, S&P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000, as well as European equities extended their Santa Claus rally on Tuesday as they all tracked Monday's robust Wall Street session higher.

    Still, safe havens remain in play: Treasury yields edged lower and gold gained.

    h2 Global Financial Affairs/h2

    All four US futures contracts were green this morning. Contracts on the NASDAQ 100 as well as the Russell 2000 both led, providing an unusual tandem play earlier Tuesday, though futures on the Russell 2000 have since retreated while NASDAQ contracts pushed higher.

    Futures on the S&P 500 extended gains after the underlying index hit its 69th record close this year during yesterday's New York trade.

    European stocks advanced today, with travel and leisure companies rebounding from yesterday's selloffs, triggered by thousands of canceled flights over the weekend and with storms exacerbating a sector already short-staffed because of accelerating COVID-19 outbreaks.

    This is the fifth daily advance out of six for the pan-European STOXX 600 Index. It's now within 0.8% of its Nov. 17 record close.

    China's Shanghai Composite rose less than 0.4% earlier today as local regulators clarified rules for overseas IPOs.

    Other Asian benchmarks saw stronger gains on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei popped 1.37%. The index is riding a rally in technology stocks after Japan's Industrial Production jumped 7.2% in November, the fastest pace on record for the country, helped by a strong return to car production on easing global supply chain bottlenecks. Could this loosening of the supply traffic jam create a drop in inflation?

    Carmaker shares in Europe also accelerated on Tuesday. Since people purchase cars when the economy is strong, it could be regarded as sign of investor optimism. But many of today's new cars are also highly technical in nature, so though the shares might have once been considered value oriented, there's now a growth component involved as well.

    During Monday's US trading, stocks advanced for the fourth day in a row. Light volume coupled with holiday cheer appears to be helping investors ignore escalating coronavirus cases both in the US and around the world.

    Even with the S&P 500 Index notching its 69th record close in 2021, it was the NASDAQ 100 that outperformed, adding 1.6% of value.

    Moreover, the S&P 500's rally was primarily propelled by mega tech shares, including Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) record close and Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) near-record close.

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    Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB) and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) also vaulted, with the EV manufacturer capping it's strongest four day run since March. However, from a technical perspective, TSLA shares may be running out of steam.