We’ve seen this before. And investors and traders seem determined to keep a good thing going–until it doesn’t work anymore.
Today, January 2, the first trading day in the new year for U.S. markets, stocks were off to the rally races again.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 0.84% and the Dow Jones Industrials finished ahead 1.16%. The NASDAQ Composite did even better, ending the day with a gain of 1.33%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) ended higher by 2.03%.
Only the small cap Russell 2000 was lower on the day with a small 0.15% loss.
Technology and more technology led the way with Apple (AAPL) ahead 2.28% and chip stocks Xilinx (XLNX), Cirrus Logic (CRUS), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM), and Broadcom (AVGO) ahead 3.97%, 3.14%, 3.34%, and 2.02%, respectively.
But the technology gains weren’t limited to chip makers. Microsoft (MSFT) gained 1.85% and Solar Edge Technologies (SEDG) added 7.07%.
Walt Disney (DIS) led the charge for non-tech blue chips with a 2.14% gain. McDonald’s (MCD) moved up 1.59%. Amazon (AMZN) was higher by 2.72% and Deere (DE) gained 2.08%.
As you might expect in this context, the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX), the so-called “fear index” was significantly lower, dropping 9.26% to 12.49.
