Stocks Close Mostly Higher But Well Off Best Levels - U.S. Commentary

(RTTNews) - With the markets reopening following the long holiday weekend, stocks saw modest strength during trading on Tuesday. The gains on the day lifted the tech-heavy Nasdaq to a new record closing high.

The major averages ended the day in positive territory but well off their highs of the session. The Dow inched up 11.23 points or 0.1 percent to 19,945.04, the Nasdaq climbed 24.75 points or 0.5 percent to 5,487.44 and the S&P 500 rose 5.09 points or 0.2 percent to 2,268.88.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflected recent upward momentum, with analysts suggesting the path of least resistance remains to the upside.

Buying interest may also have been generated by traders looking to do some "window dressing" in the final trading days of the year.

Trading activity remained somewhat subdued, however, with some traders still away from their desks ahead of another three-day weekend in celebration of New Year's Day.

On the U.S. economic front, the Conference Board released a report showing a continued improvement in consumer confidence in the month of December.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 113.7 in December from an upwardly revised 109.4 in November.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 108.5 from the 107.1 originally reported for the previous month.

"Consumer Confidence improved further in December, due solely to increasing Expectations which hit a 13-year high," said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board.

She added, "Looking ahead to 2017, consumers' continued optimism will depend on whether or not their expectations are realized."

Sector News

Gold stocks showed a significant move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.5 percent.

The strength among gold stocks came amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for February climbing $5.20 to $1,138.80 an ounce.

Considerable strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.2 percent advance by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. With the gain, the index reached a sixteen-year closing high.

Graphics chip maker Nvidia (NVDA) posted a standout gain within the semiconductor sector, surging up by 6.9 percent to a record high.

Steel and oil service stocks also saw notable strength on the day, while most of the other major sectors showed more modest moves.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Tuesday, with several markets closed for holidays. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index closed just above the unchanged line, while China's Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.3 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets saw modest strength on the day, although the U.K. markets remained closed. The French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index both edged up by 0.2 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved back to the downside after seeing modest strength last Friday. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose by 2 basis points to 1.563 percent.

Looking Ahead

Wednesday morning, the National Association of Realtors is scheduled to release a report on pending home sales in the month of November. Pending home sales are expected to climb by 0.5 percent.

A pending home sale is one in which a contract was signed but not yet closed. Normally, it takes four to six weeks to close a contracted sale.