Dow, S&P 500 notch record closing highs as Santa rally starts
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Why it matters
The Dow and S&P 500 reached record closing highs, driven by optimism around AI, rate cuts, and a resilient economy, marking the fifth straight session of gains and the third consecutive yearly gain for the major indexes.
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Expected market reaction
Market impact analysis based on bullish sentiment with 89% confidence.
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- groq-llama-3.1-8b-instant
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- groq-llama-3.1-8b-instant
- Article id
- 26242
Original source
STORY: U.S. stocks closed higher in a holiday-shortened session on Wednesday, with the Dow climbing six-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 adding nearly a third of a percent and the Nasdaq gaining more than two-tenths of a percent.Wall Street's major indexes recorded their fifth straight session of gains, with the Dow and S&P 500 notching record closing highs.The bull market, which began in October 2022, stayed intact as optimism around AI, rate cuts and a resilient economy supported sentiment, with all three indexes set for their third straight yearly gain."And let's not forget this three-year rally is rare. It doesn't happen much."Robert Conzo is CEO and managing director of The Wealth Alliance."A double-digit rate of return since 1928, three years in a row or more, has happened only five times. The longest run was '95 to '99. So we're three years in, double-digit rates of returns. What is '26 going to look like? I think we're going to get back to more historical rates of returns. I think it'll still be an OK year, but not what we've seen going forward."Stocks on the move Wednesday included Micron Technology, which climbed nearly 4% to reach a record closing high, continuing a rally after the company issued a strong forecast last week.Shares of Dynavax Technologies surged more than 38% after French drugmaker Sanofi said it would buy the U.S. vaccines company for around $2.2 billion.And shares of Nike jumped about 4.5% after Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company's lead independent director, bought about $3 million worth of shares.U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday for the Christmas holiday.
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Original article published by Yahoo Finance on December 24, 2025. Analysis and insights provided by AnalystMarkets AI.