Santa Rally Kicks Off On Wall Street: Stocks Gain, Tesla Soars, Bitcoin Hits $98,000

Wall Street kicked off the Santa Rally season on a positive note, with all major indices and sectors closing higher in a shortened session ahead of the Christmas holiday.

The S&P 500 climbed 1%, extending its gains for a third consecutive session following last week’s volatile Federal Reserve meeting.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.9%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 gained 1.3%, nearly erasing last week’s losses.

Consumer discretionary stocks, the top-performing sector of the year, led the rally amid light trading volumes. Tesla Inc TSLA surged 7.35%, marking its strongest single-day performance since November.

Other standout performers in the S&P 500 included Walmart Inc. WMT, Starbucks Corp. SBUX, and Netflix Inc. NFLX, up 2.4%, 2.8% and 2.5% respectively.

The U.S. dollar index posted modest gains, with the greenback hovering near over one-year highs against the euro. Treasury yields remained stable, with the 10-year benchmark at 4.6%, the highest level since May.

In commodities, gold edged up 0.4%, while oil prices rose 0.7%.

Risk appetite returned to the cryptocurrency market following recent volatility, as Bitcoin BTC/USD jumped 4% to over $98,000. This rally buoyed crypto-related stocks, including Microstrategy Inc. MSTR, MARA Digital Holdings Inc. MARA, and Coinbase Global Inc. COIN, all posting notable gains.

Tuesday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 1.1% to $601.01.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA rose 0.8% to $432.44.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ rallied 1.3% to $529.94.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM rose 1% to $223.46.
• The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY outperformed, up by 2.3%; the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU lagged, up 0.5%.

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