Wall Street, led by Big Tech, rallies ahead of the Christmas holiday

NEW YORK —  Technology stocks led a broad rally on Wall Street on Tuesday during a holiday-shortened trading session ahead of Christmas.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 1.1% for its third straight gain. The Dow Jones industrial average added 0.9%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 1.3%.

While Big Tech companies, including Apple, Amazon and chip company Broadcom helped push the market higher, the gains were widespread.

Advancers outnumbered decliners by more than 3 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Broadcom rose 3.2%, Apple gained 1.1% and Amazon closed 1.8% higher. Super Micro Computer climbed 6%.

Tesla jumped 7.4% for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks.

American Airlines shook off an early loss and ended with a 0.6% gain after the airline briefly grounded flights nationwide because of a technical issue.

Elsewhere in the market, U.S. Steel rose 1.9% a day after an influential government panel failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of a nearly $15-billion proposed sale to Nippon Steel of Japan.

NeueHealth surged 74.9% after the healthcare company agreed to be taken private in a deal valued at roughly $1.3 billion.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 65.97 points to 6,040.04. The Dow advanced 390.08 points to 43,297.03, and the Nasdaq jumped 266.24 points to 20,031.13.

Treasury yields held steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was little changed at 4.59%.

European markets closed mostly higher. Markets in Asia mostly gained ground.

Tuesday’s U.S. market rally comes as the stock market enters what’s historically been a very cheerful season. The last five trading days of each year, plus the first two in the new year, have brought an average gain of 1.3% since 1950. The so-called Santa rally also correlates closely with positive returns in January and the upcoming year.

So far this month, the U.S. stock market has lost some of its gains since President-elect Donald Trump’s election day win, which raised hopes for faster economic growth and more lax regulations that would boost corporate profits. Worries have risen that Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation, a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade.

Even so, the stock market remains on pace to deliver strong returns for 2024. The benchmark S&P 500 is up 26.6% so far this year and remains within roughly 1% of the all-time high it set earlier this month — its latest of 57 record highs this year.

U.S. markets will be closed Wednesday for Christmas.

Wall Street has several economic reports to look forward to this week, including a weekly update on unemployment benefits on Thursday.

Veiga writes for the Associated Press.