A wobbly day of trading on Wall Street left stock indexes mixed Tuesday, pulling the Standard & Poor’s 500 index just below its latest record high.
“We did have four straight days of upward movement,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “Investors are keeping their fingers tightly crossed that we will end up with a positive ‘Santa Claus’ rally.”That’s what Wall Street calls a rally in the final five days in December and the first two trading days in January. Since 1950, the S&P 500 index has risen an average of 1.3% during those seven days.
Technology companies, which did well Monday, led the decliners in the S&P 500. Graphics chip maker Nvidia fell 2%.