Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on December 10, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Stock futures edged higher in overnight trading Sunday as markets geared up for a holiday-shortened business week.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose about 100 points. S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 0.4%.
Trading is expected to be relatively calm this week. The New York Stock Exchange will close at 1pm ET on Tuesday for Christmas Eve, and the market will be closed on Christmas Day.
Investors are hoping that the so-called Santa Claus Rally could help markets end 2024 on a strong note after a particularly turbulent week. Since 1969, the S&P 500 has gained an average of 1.3% in the last five business days of the year and the first two business days of January, according to the Stock Traders Almanac.
The second half of December is also the second-best period of the year for U.S. stocks, with the S&P 500 index up 83% in December during a presidential election year, according to Bank of America.
“The main uptrend in the market remains in place and we are not giving up on the possibility of Santa Claus coming to Broad & Wall this year,” Craig Johnson, chief market technologist at Piper Sandler, said in a note.
The market is emerging from a roller coaster that saw the blue-chip Dow suffer its longest 10-day losing streak since 1974. Last Wednesday, the Dow fell 1,100 points after the Federal Reserve indicated it would cut interest rates less in 2025 than previously expected. Lower-than-expected inflation helped recoup some of the losses in stock prices.
Month-to-date, the Dow 30 fell 4.6% in December, while the S&P 500 fell 1.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index bucked its downward trend and rose 1.8% this month.
On the political front, President Joe Biden signed a government funding bill on Saturday, averting a government shutdown. The bill would fund federal agencies at current levels for the next three months.
