S&P 500 closes higher, Nasdaq jumps for eighth day as both indexes add to 7-week advance: Live updates

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed higher Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed, gaining just 0.86 points, or 0.00%, to 37,306.02. The S&P 500 climbed 0.45% to 4,740.56. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.61% to 14,904.81.

— Sarah Min

Oil prices rose more than 1% on Monday as attacks on vessels in the Red Sea create shipping disruptions.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for January rose $1.04, or 1.46%, to settle at $72.47 a barrel. The Brent contract for February gained $1.40, or 1.83%, to settle at $77.95 a barrel.

BP announced on Monday that it was pausing shipping through the Suez Canal in response to attacks by militants in Yemen on vessels in the Red Sea.

— Spencer Kimball

Real estate and utilities underperformed on Monday. The sectors were the only two trading in negative territory. Real estate was down by 0.8%, while utilities declined 0.6%.

Kimco Realty and Boston Properties were lower by more than 1%, each. Prologis was off by 1.2%.

Exelon shares dropped by 3%, while PG&E declined more than 2%. Pinnacle West Capital fell by 1.5%.

— Sarah Min

Shares of The North Face and Vans owner VF Corp. tumbled Monday after the company reported that a hack had affected its ability to fulfill some orders ahead of the holidays.

The company said hackers encrypted "some" systems and made off with personal data. Those are some hallmarks of ransomware, where attackers try to extort companies in exchange for hefty payment. VF Corp. declined to comment on whether the incident was a ransomware attack.

The stock dropped more than 8% Monday.

— Rohan Goswami, Drew Richardson

The S&P 500 will likely reach its all-time high after its recent surge, and then gain another 5%, according to CFRA Research's Sam Stovall. But the chief investment strategist then expects the broader index will pull back 5% from those levels — moves that have historical precedent.

"After recouping all that was lost in the prior bear market, the S&P 500 went on to climb an additional 5.2% over the next 2.4 months before succumbing to another decline of 5% or more, averaging -8.2%," Stovall wrote Monday after reviewing the performance of 14 bear markets since 1946.

"The good news is that after the S&P 500 recovered all that was lost in the prior bear market, none of these subsequent declines became a new bear market," Stovall added. "The bad news, however, is that this post-[all-time-high] advance might be very short-lived, since four times the market stumbled almost immediately after recovering its prior bear market loss."

The broader index rallied is within 2% of its all-time closing high of 4,796.56, and its record intraday high at 4,818.62, that were reached January 2022. On Monday, the S&P 500 was last trading at 4,746.13.

A 5% gain from the closing high would place the S&P 500 at around 5,036, while a 5% fall from those levels would place the broader index back at roughly 4,784.

— Sarah Min

Communication services was the top sector in the S&P 500 in afternoon trading, with the sector up more than 2%. Mega-cap tech names such as Meta Platforms gained more than 3%, while Google-parent Alphabet jumped more than 2%. Netflix shares rose more than 2%.

— Sarah Min

Tech stocks could face a larger wave of pressure in 2024, according to Bernstein senior research analyst Toni Sacconaghi.

"We struggle to recommend an overweight in tech for 2024," the analyst wrote in a Monday note. "Tech has outperformed by 2500+ bps twice in the last 20 years (2009 and 2020) and both times subsequent next year performance was in line with the broader market."

Sacconaghi said that while the firm finds it difficult to remain overweight on tech stocks, Bernstein is stopping short of moving to an underweight rating due to strong momentum, falling interest rates as well as the overall outperformance of the sector which makes it "statistically tough (and economically punitive) to actively 'bet against' tech."

— Brian Evans

Of the 28 new 52-week highs in the S&P 500 on Monday, four of the stocks (HD, AXP, JPM, CRM) are also among the 30 in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Nine of the 28, Costco, Philips 66, Vertex Pharma, WW Grainger, Arista Networks, CDW Corp., KLA Corp., PTC Inc. and NRG Energy, were notable for also scoring all-time highs.

New S&P 500 52-week highs:

• Netflix, highest since Jan. 2022
• News Corp Class B, highest since Nov. 2021
• Amazon.com, highest since April, 2022
• Home Depot, highest since Feb. 2022
• Marriott International, all-time high going back to spinoff from Marriott Corp. in 1993
• Costco, all-time high going back to 1985 IPO
• Phillips 66, all-time high going back to 2013 IPO
• American Express, highest since April 2022
• Capital One, highest since May 2022
• FleetCor Technologies, highest since Oct. 2021
• JPMorgan, highest since Jan. 2022
• Vertex Pharma, all-time high back to 1991 IPO
• CSX, highest since August 2022
• Equifax, highest since Jan. 2022
• Fastenal, highest since Dec. 2021
• FedEx, highest since July 2021
• General Electric, highest since Nov. 2017
• WW Grainger, all-time going back to start of trading in 1967
• Akamai Technologies, highest since April 2022
• Arista Networks, all-time going back to 2014 IPO
• CDW Corp., all-time high going back to 2013 IPO
• Salesforce.com, highest since Dec. 2021
• Cognizant Technology, highest since May 2022
• F5 Networks, highest since April 2022
• KLA Corporation, all-time high going back to 1980 IPO
• PTC Inc (PTC), all-time high going back to 1989 IPO
• Celanese, highest since June 2022
• NRG Energy, all-time high going back to IPO In 2000

New S&P 500 52-week lows:

• Hershey, lowest since. Dec. 2021
• Exelon Corp., lowest since Oct. 2021

— Scott Schnipper, Chris Hayes

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Etsy — The online merchandise platform saw shares rebound 3% after a steep sell-off last week. Etsy announced last Wednesday that it is cutting 11% of its workforce, or approximately 225 employees, as the company looks to restructure its business and streamline costs against a "very challenging" macro and competitive environment.

Netflix — The stock added 3% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Netflix to $550 from $475 per share. The bank cited renewed confidence in the streaming giant's return to content spending and "execution on growth initiatives including paid sharing and advertising."

Oil stocks — Oil companies broadly rose as crude prices jumped more than 2% on concerns of supply disruptions. Valero Energy added 3%, while Marathon Petroleum and Diamondback Energy gained more than 2%.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

The S&P 500's internal momentum indicates that it has hit its "escape velocity" at this point, according to Jeff deGraaf.

"The burden of proof is absolutely on the bears here," the CEO and chairman of Renaissance Macro told CNBC's "Money Movers" on Monday morning.

Sector-wise, deGraaf believes that buying opportunities exist within regional banks and REITs, which have been "very, very neglected." He also said that healthcare has the potential to do well in 2024 and over the long term, although so far he hasn't seen much momentum in the sector.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Investors will see this week whether the S&P 500 can maintain its momentum to an eight-week win streak after the recent surge in markets. Historically speaking, at least, traders have some precedent.

Since 1964, the broader market index notched seven weeks of gains just 20 other times, according to Chris Larkin, managing director at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley, wrote Monday. Of those occasions, the S&P 500 extended the rally to eight weeks 12 times.

"This week we'll see whether the stock market's seasonal tendency to rally in the second half of December bumps up against potential exhaustion amid one of the strongest short-term rallies of the past several years," Larkin wrote.

— Sarah Min

Apple was the biggest laggard in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday. The iPhone maker was down by 1.3% in midday trading. The 30-stock index was higher by just 13 points, or 0.04%.

On Friday, a Bloomberg report, citing people familiar with the matter, said more Chinese agencies and government-backed firms are restricting employees from bringing iPhones to work.

— Sarah Min

Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a note to clients Monday that his team sees the Federal Reserve cutting rates three times in the first half of next year.

"We see the committee delivering at least three back-to-back 25bp cuts, probably in March, May, and June. Such an adjustment would resemble the 1995, 1998, and 2019 episodes," Hatzius said.

Additionally, Goldman forecasts two more cuts in the back half of 2024 as well, for a total of five.

Fed officials have continued to say that think the fight with inflation is not over, and the central bank's latest projections call for three cuts in all of 2024. However, Hatzius said that inflation appears to be cooling around the world.

"Averaging across the broad group of economies that saw a large and unwanted post-covid price surge —the G10 excluding Japan plus the EM early hikers — we estimate that core inflation ran at a sequential annualized pace of 2.2% over the past three months and just 1.3% in November. We therefore now see earlier and more aggressive rate cuts from several major DM central banks," Hatzius wrote.

— Jesse Pound

The energy sector led the S&P 500 on Monday, jumping about 2% as oil prices bounced.

U.S. crude prices and the global benchmark Brent were both up about 4% as attacks on vessels in the Red Sea disrupted shipping. BP announced Monday it was pausing shipping the Suez Canal due to safety concerns.

The oilfield services company Baker Hughes led the sector with its stock rising about 3%.

— Spencer Kimball

Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that the market may have misinterpreted the central bank's update from last week, when the Dow jumped to a record high.

"It's not what you say, or what the chair says. It's what did they hear, and what did they want to hear," Goolsbee said. "I was confused a bit — was the market just imputing, here's what we want them to be saying?"

The Fed president also pushed back against the idea that the Fed is actively planning on a series of rate cuts.

"We don't debate specific policies, speculatively, about the future. We vote on that meeting," he said.

— Jesse Pound

The major averages opened higher Monday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 35 points, 0.1%. The S&P 500 gained 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%.

— Sarah Min

Oil prices jumped more than 2% on Monday as attacks by militants based in Yemen on Red Sea shipping disrupts shipping through the crucial waterway.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for January gained $1.90, or 2.66%, to trade at $73.33, while the Brent contract for February rose $2.06, or 2.69%, to $78.61 a barrel.

BP became the latest company on Monday to pause shipping through the Suez Canal after a series of attacks by Houthi militants on vessels.

"In light of the deteriorating security situation for shipping in the Red Sea, bp has decided to temporarily pause all transits through the Red Sea," BP said in a statement.

— Spencer Kimball

The VanEck Steel ETF rose almost 2% in early trading Monday in reaction to Nippon Steel's agreement to buy U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion.

Early gains were led by U.S. Steel, up 29% in recent trading, while Cleveland-Cliffs, Steel Dynamics and ArcelorMittal all gained roughly 4% premarket.

U.S. Steel soared almost 37% on August 14, 2023 when Cleveland-Cliffs made an unsolicited $7.3 billion buyout offer.

— Scott Schnipper, Gina Francolla

Adobe and Figma, the cloud-based design tool, will terminate their planned $20 billion merger in light of regulatory hurdles, the companies said Monday.

In a statement, the two companies said "there is no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority."

Adobe shares rose 1.8% in Monday premarket trading.

— Hayden Field, Sarah Min

These are some of the stocks on the move before the bell:

• U.S. Steel — U.S. Steel shares popped more than 28% after Japan's Nippon Steel said it would buy the company in a deal that values the American steel company at $14.9 billion, including debt.
• Affirm — Shares of the buy now pay later company fell more than 5% after Morgan Stanley downgraded Affirm to underweight from equal weight.
• Illumina — Illumina popped nearly 6% after the company said its plans to sell its Grail unit through a third-party sale of capital markets transaction, finalizing the terms by the end of the second quarter of next year.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Samantha Subin

The broader market has resumed its bull cycle that started in October of last year, according to Oppenheimer.

"The S&P 500's breakout above its July peak confirms a resumption of the bull cycle, in our view," analyst Ari Wald said in a note published Saturday, adding that the bull cycle should continue into 2024. "Consider that high-beta vs. low-volatility rallied through multi-year resistance last week—we see this as a major breakout for risk."

The market is overbought, Wald said, adding that he is doubtful he can sell the market in a timely fashion and buy it back advantageously as well. The analyst recommended reducing "relatively weak" stocks and letting winners—like large-cap growth stocks—run.

"We're especially encouraged because internal breadth continues to broaden," Wald said in the note. He noted that the percentage of New York Stock Exchange stocks trading above their 200-day moving average has risen above 60%, which is a pivotal move, according to the firm. Wald is now waiting for that number to move above 70% to confirm a broadening breakout.

 — Pia Singh

Goldman Sachs is already raising its 2024 stock market forecast, and the year isn't even here yet.

The S&P 500 will rise 8% to 5,100 next year, according to chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin, who cited falling yields and the recent Federal Reserve change to a more lenient monetary policy. The S&P 500 rallied 5% in the past month to already meet Kostin's original 2024 forecast of 4,700 for the new year that he gave back in November.

"Lifting our 12-month S&P 500 target to 5100 as inflation falls, the Fed turns dovish, and real yields plunge," wrote Kostin in a note Friday.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read the full story here.

— John Melloy

U.S. Steel shares rallied more than 23% in the premarket after the steelmaker agreed to be bought out by Japan's Nippon Steel for $55 per share in cash. The deal values U.S. Steel at $14.9 billion in total enterprise value.

"This transaction realizes the tremendous value today in our company and is the result of our Board of Directors' comprehensive and thorough strategic alternatives process," U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt said in a statement.

The deal is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2024.

— Fred Imbert

European markets opened slightly lower on Monday.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.3% in early trade, with construction and material stocks shedding 1.1% to lead losses while the health care sector nudged 0.3% higher.

The continental blue chip index closed out a fifth straight winning week on Friday, up 0.91% on the day after a slew of major central bank decisions throughout the week.

- Elliot Smith

South Korean defense stocks were higher by midday trading on Monday, outperforming the broader Kospi.

Shares of defense companies were broadly higher. Korea Aerospace Industries' stock was up 1.05%, Hyundai Rotem up 0.95%, Victek up 1.23%, Firstec up 1.23%, Speco up 0.60% and LIG Nex1 up over 5%. But shares of Hanhwa Aerospace were near flat, hovering below the flatline.

The Kospi gained about 0.3% higher by midday trading after opening near the flat line.

North Korea reportedly fired what appeared to be a long-range ballistic missile on Monday, its second missile launch in less than 12 hours, according to South Korea's military. It comes as Pyongyang condemned a U.S.-led show of force against the nuclear armed state.

From 2018 to 2022, South Korea was the ninth largest weapons supplier globally, ahead of Israel, the Netherlands and Turkey, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Singapore's non-oil domestic exports grew at a much slower-than-expected pace in November, according to government data.

NODX grew 1% year-on-year in November, with declines in electronic products. The reading was far below a Reuters poll forecast of a 2.3% rise.

NODX to the top markets — Taiwan, the European Union and Indonesia — declined in November 2023, according to the data.

Exports to the United States, China, Thailand and Hong Kong rose.

The Straits Times index fell 0.54% in early trading on Monday.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Shares of artificial intelligence company SenseTime plunged as much as 14.2% after the company announced the death of its founder, Tang Xiao'ou, on Sunday.

In a filing to the Hong Kong Exchange, SenseTime said that Tang died due to "health issues" on Dec. 15.

In a separate announcement, SenseTime said that the business operations of the company will continue to be led by executive chairman and CEO Xu Li, and Tang's death is not expected to have a material impact on the business of SenseTime.

— Lim Hui Jie

The dollar index was down 0.89% year to date as of Dec. 17, putting it on pace for its first negative year in three years.

The U.S. Dollar has broadly fallen against foreign currencies after the Federal Reserve indicated three rate cuts in 2024. In the prior trading week, the dollar index fell 1.35%, which marked its worst weekly performance since Nov. 17, as well as its fourth negative week in five weeks.

— Hakyung Kim, Chris Hayes

U.S. stock futures opened slightly above the flatline on Sunday.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures inched up 21 points, or 0.05%.

Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose 0.1% and 0.02%, respectively.

— Hakyung Kim