US Stock Market Today: Wall Street Little Changed In Post-Christmas Session, S&P Hovers Around Record Highs

The main US stock market indices opened little changed on Friday, carrying forward the highs of previous sessions, as investor sentiment remained upbeat over positive economic data and corporate earnings.

The wider index, S&P 500 opened 0.06% or 3.97 points higher at
6,936.02, tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opened 0.14% or 32.6 points higher at 23,645.91, while Dow Jones Industrial Average opened 0.04% or 18.53 points lower at 48,712.47.

Of the magnificent seven stock, bellwether company Nvidia Corp. was up 1.13% to $190.80, Apple Inc. was up 0.26% at $274.47, Google-parent Alphabet Inc. was down 0.35% at $313.07, Tesla Inc. fell 1.40% to $478.86 and Meta Platforms was down 0.20% at $666.08.

Amazon Inc. traded little 0.08% lower at $232.21 and Microsoft Corp. traded 0.28% lower at $486.63.

After the US markets opened, only two out of the 11 sectoral indices edged in the green and nine were in the red. Gains were led by Materials and Information Technology sectors, whereas the Consumer Discretionary sector and Industrials led the decline.

Spot gold prices ticked 1.14% higher to trade at $4,532 an ounce, whereas the crude basket dipped with West Texas Intermediate trading 1.03% lower at $57.75 a barrel and Brent Crude trading 1.12% lower at $61.53.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed. The euro was also unchanged at $1.1784. Similarly, the British pound was little changed at $1.3516, but the Japanese yen fell 0.4% to 156.45 per dollar

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, fell 0.6% to $87,349.01