On Thursday, US stocks showed gains amid sluggish trading a day after hitting another all-time high in the final days of the year

The S&P 500 Index rose again and hit a new price high. The S&P 500 has already hit it 71 times this year, with the biggest contributors to the index's rise coming from metropolitan area stocks Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc, as well as drug maker Pfizer Inc. The high-tech Nasdaq 100 also went up, while the Russell 2000 small-cap gained 0.8%.

To illustrate a still robust labor demand despite the latest wave of coronavirus, data Thursday showed that jobless claims declined unexpectedly last week, while continuing claims fell to their lowest level since last March. Business activity in Chicago rose more in December than economists had predicted.

Chris Gaffney stated that traditionally they got a Santa Claus rally, however later these last couple of days might be pretty volatile. He added that managers could decide to lock in profits, though it would be unremarkable that year. Gaffney noted that the economic environment, the fundamentals for companies were still very strong.

The 10-year Treasury bond yield fell to its 50-day moving average, while yields across most of Europe also declined after global sovereign bonds went down on Wednesday. The dollar gained.

Shares of cruise ships, including Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, fell after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cruise travel should be avoided even if passengers were vaccinated due to the risk of Covid-19.

There is growing evidence that the Omicron variant may be less dangerous, especially for vaccinated people as deaths from viruses in the US have declined.

As the year draws to a close, investors are assessing the consequences of rapidly spreading the Omicron coronavirus variant, higher inflation caused by supply constraints and the withdrawal of stimulus measures, including tightening monetary policy, especially by the Federal Reserve.

Quant Insight US head Colin Stewart said that nothing had changed dramatically at the end of the year in terms of new data on macro changes. He noted that in January the S&P would expect a Fed rate hike. Stewart added that it was the top one positive factor for the short-term S&P.