S&P 500’s year-end rally lifts 51 stocks to a record close

Stocks that logged a record close on Tuesday included Allstate Corp
ALL,
+0.90%,
Costco Wholesale
COST,
+0.90%,
D.R. Horton, Inc.
DHI,
+0.65%,
Mastercard
MA,
+1.21%,
T-Mobile US Inc.,
TMUS,
+1.00%
Visa Inc.
V,
+1.19%
and Waste Management Inc.,
WM,
+1.85%
among others.

Equities have been in a year-end rally mode, driven higher by tumbling benchmark yields that finance much of the U.S. economy and expectations of coming interest-rate cuts.

The 10-year Treasury rate
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
fell to 4.2% on Tuesday from a high of about 5% in October.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
on Tuesday ended at its third-highest level on record, while the S&P 500 index
SPX
and Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP
added to a string of new closing highs for 2023. The Dow finished 0.6% away from its record close logged almost two years ago, while the S&P 500 was only 3.2% below its close from the same period, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The push higher for stocks followed inflation data for November that showed price pressures continued to ease from peak levels, but still were above the Fed’s 2% annual target.

The consumer-price index pegged the annual rate of inflation at 3.1%, down from 3.2% in October, with the “last mile” of inflation expected to be the hardest part to tame.

Investors now will be focused on Wednesday’s Federal Reserve decision. Short-term interest rates are expected to remain unchanged at a 22-year high, but the central bank is expected to update its “dot plot” forecast of rates over a longer time horizon.

“Although the market will focus on the timing of rate cuts, we suspect Chair Powell will be keen to strike notes of caution to avoid financial conditions easing too much further to ensure the Fed continues to see encouraging progress on inflation,” said Emin Hajiyev, senior economist at Insight Investment, in emailed comments.