Wall Street snapped out of its holiday-season funk on Friday. The S&P 500 rallied 1.3% for its first gain since Christmas and its best day in nearly two months. Strength for Big Tech stocks helped it break a five-day losing streak,

Indexes fell in their first trading day after Christmas as traders hope for a so-called Santa Clause rally to propel markets higher into the new year.

The U.S. stock market had a banner year, but the holiday season has been far from festive. The S&P 500 logged 57 record highs in 2024, the sixth most since 1928, while also recording consecutive 20% gains for the fifth time on record.

Stocks are broadly higher in trading on Wall Street, led by gains in Big Tech stocks. The S&P 500 was up 0.7% Tuesday.

The Dow closed slightly higher on Thursday while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 closed lower in the second day of a so-called Santa Claus rally period.

After closing higher in Tuesday's abbreviated session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished today up 0.07% at 43,325, while the S&P 500 was 0.04% lower at 6,037, and the Nasdaq Composite had shed 0.05% to 20,020.

Traders will get some time off from the stock market on Christmas Day, while equity index futures and the trading of metals and energy futures on Comex and the New York Mercantile Exchange will also be closed.

Shares are lower in Tokyo and Shanghai, two of only a handful of world markets open on Christmas day. Oil prices rose.