Wall Street delivers record highs just in time for Christmas

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U.S. stocks finished significantly higher on Monday posting their fourth straight day of gains with the S&P 500 and the Dow closing at record highs continuing last week's Fed-sparked rally.

Investors pushed aside worse-than-expected existing home sales data and focused on the Fed's reassurances from last week that it will be "patient" about the timing and pace of a rate increase.

At the closing bell in New York the Dow Jones had jumped 154 points to settle at 17959 while the Nasdaq climbed 16 points to finish at 4781 and the S&P 500 gained 8 points to end at 2079 after logging its second best week in almost a year.

With the stock market closing early on Christmas Eve Wednesday and shut for Christmas Day investors will get a bunch of economic reports before then starting off with November existing home sales which fell 6.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million from 5.25 million in the prior month.

This was the weakest sales rate since May after hitting their highest level in a year in October. Economists were expecting a 1.1% drop in November.


Commodities

Oil prices resumed their slide amid strong signals that Saudi Arabia has no intention of cutting crude output. On the New York Mercantile Exchange West Texas Intermediate for delivery in February surrendered earlier gains and settled 3% lower at US$55.38 a barrel.

Gold for February delivery fell 1.4% to US$1179.8 an ounce.


Wall Street round-up

In corporate activity Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) is buying affiliate Caesars Acquisition (NASDAQ:CACQ) in a $1.29 billion deal. The deal will better position Caesars Entertainment to restructure the $18.4 billion debt load of its largest unit.

Express Scripts (NASDAQ:ESRX) has announced that it will only cover AbbVie's (NYSE:ABBV) newly approved Hep C treatment Viekira Pak which received clearance from the FDA on Friday. The announcement will help AbbVie steal market share away from Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) which make blockbuster Hep C drugs.

American Apparel (NYSE:APP) shares rose more than 6.5% after the company said it is considering an offer to sell itself at a premium of 31% to Friday's close. The move comes just a week after CEO Dov Charney was ousted from the company and replaced by Paula Schneider. Reports were also circulating last week that the retailer was approached  by Irving Place Capital about a possible takeover.

Walgreen (NYSE:WAG) is planning to withdraw its listing from the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Stock Exchange when it completes its merger with Alliance Boots. The combined company is planning to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "WBA".

Staples (NASDAQ:SPLS) fell 0.2% after saying post-market close Friday that malware affected point-of-sale systems at 115 of its more than 1400 stores in August and September.

 

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