Wall Street ends higher, another S&P 500 record

Technology companies led U.S. stocks broadly higher Monday, extending the market’s recent rally and nudging the S&P 500 to another all-time high.

Wall Street kicked off the final week in a banner year for the stock market with mostly muted trading as investors returned from the Christmas holiday and several overseas markets remained closed.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4%, its fourth straight gain. The benchmark index, which capped a holiday-shortened week Thursday with a record high, is on pace to close out the year with a 27.6% gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.4%.

The major indexes posted weekly gains last week as fears ebbed about the potential impact of the COVID-19 omicron variant. However, much is still uncertain about omicron, which is spreading extremely quickly and leading to a return to pandemic restrictions in some places.

The S&P 500 rose 65.40 points to 4,791.19. The index has notched 69 all-time highs so far this year. The Dow gained 351.82 points to 36,302.38, and the Nasdaq rose 217.89 points to 15,871.26.

Small company stocks also rose. The Russell 2000 index gained 19.88 points, or 0.9%, to 2,261.46.

Trading is expected to be quiet, but potentially volatile, this week as the omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread quickly throughout the U.S. and overseas. However most big investors have closed out their positions for 2021, and are like to hold their ground until next week.