S&P 500 set to expose at record high as rally endures

The S&P 500 was expected to open at all-time highs on Tuesday, extending a record-setting run amid light trade volumes, with investors unfazed by Omicron-related travel delays and store closures.On Monday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq achieved their greatest four-day gains since November 2020, with the S&P 500 reaching a new high as investors ignored hundreds of flight cancellations and Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) decision to close its New York stores due to high demand.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reduced the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic COVID-19 cases to five days on Monday, down from ten days before. The CDC’s update along with approvals to new pills and more vaccines to fight COVID-19 have all helped put the three main indexes on pace for monthly gains.

“This policy change is sending the message that it is becoming more like the flu and less like the variants we saw early on when we had no treatments, no vaccines and it was much more deadly,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York.

Dow e-minis were up 77 points, or 0.21 percent, at 8:16 a.m. ET, while S&P 500 e-minis were up 11 points, or 0.23 percent, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 70.5 points, or 0.43 percent.Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Inc jumped 1.7 percent in premarket trading after gaining over 22 percent in value over the previous four sessions. Apple, which is up a smidgeon, is on the verge of being the first U.S. business to have a market capitalization of $3 trillion.

Nvidia (NVDA) Corp, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) Inc, and Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) Inc all increased by 0.6 percent -1 percent.

Markets are in one of their traditionally strong times, commonly known as the Santa Claus Rally, with CFRA Research statistics showing that the S&P 500 has climbed 1.3 percent on average in the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year since 1969.