NY Stock Market Hits Another Record High... Apple, Semiconductors, and Energy Show Strong Gains

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] News of a significant increase in year-end shopping led the New York stock market to rise.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

On the 27th (local time), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 351.82 points (0.98%) to close at 36,302.38, the S&P 500 index increased by 65.40 points (1.38%) to 4,791.19, and the Nasdaq index rose 217.89 points (1.39%) to close at 15,871.26.

The S&P 500 index recorded an all-time high closing price for the second consecutive day. Apple, which holds the largest market capitalization in the U.S. stock market, closed in the $180 range, approaching a market cap of $3 trillion.

In a situation where there were no special issues likely to affect the market that day, the news from the previous day that year-end shopping season sales recorded the highest growth rate in 17 years boosted investor sentiment.

Buoyed by the positive shopping news, retail companies Macy’s and Nordstrom saw their stock prices rise by over 2%.

Airline stocks all fell due to the large-scale flight cancellations caused by the Omicron variant. United Airlines fell 0.6%, American Airlines 0.5%, and Delta Air Lines 0.8%. Cruise lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean also experienced declines.

AMD led the semiconductor sector with a 5.6% rise, and Nvidia increased by 4.4%. Memory semiconductor company Micron closed flat. The iShares Semiconductor ETF also rose 2.7%.

Energy-related stocks led the overall market strength as oil prices showed a strong performance and closed higher across the board.

Bitcoin maintained the $51,000 range, and Coinbase’s stock price rose 4.5%, returning to the $280 range.

Tesla recovered to the $1,100 range during the day but closed at $1,093, up 2.5%, as the late-session gains narrowed.