Stock market news live updates: December 27, 2021

The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Monday–again.

For the second consecutive trading session, the index soared past its previous record as markets charged higher heading into the final week of 2021. All three major U.S. indexes gained in a promising sign for stock market bulls that a Santa Claus Rally is well underway.

At close, the S&P was up 1.39% 4,791.34, while the dow saw a 350-point jump to 36,302.77. The Nasdaq composite also gained 1.39%, closing up at 15,871.26.

The S&P’s move marked its 69th record close of the year after the index hit an intraday high in morning trading, up even as COVID-19 cases rise.

The year-end Santa Claus Rally — one in which stocks climb higher in the final seven trading sessions of a year, plus the first two trading days of the new year–is building momentum. For reasons unclear, over the past 92 years, the S&P 500 gained 77% of the time during the year-end rally period, according to data from Sundial Capital Research. The average gain in this nine-day trading period tallied 2.66%.

The market will head into 2022 with several key considerations to weigh but with its biggest focus on the course of the pandemic and rising inflationary pressures as well as on measures the Federal Reserve could take in response.

“Inflation and Omicron are the two most important catalysts for the stock market right now,” APAC CEO at Qraft Technologies Francis Oh told Yahoo Finance. “I think that those catalysts are priced in through the market…