S&P 500 set to open at record high as rally sustains By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Christmas tree is ATFX foreign exchange dealerseen outside of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on the last day of trading before Christmas in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 23, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

By Medha Singh and Bansari Mayur Kamdar

(Reuters) - The S&P 500 was on track to open at all-time highs on Tuesday, building on a record-setting rally amid thin trading volumes, with investors unshaken by Omicron-driven travel disruptions and store closures.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq on Monday posted their best four-day rally since November 2020, with the S&P 500 scaling a peak as an upbeat outlook on the U.S. economy helped investors look past thousands of flight cancellations and Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shutting its New York stores due to surging cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday shortened the recommended isolation time for Americans with asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 to five days from the previous guidance of 10 days.

The CDC's update along with approvals to new pills and more vaccines to fight COVID-19 have all helped put the three main indexes on pace for monthly gains.

"This policy change is sending the message that it is becoming more like the flu and less like the variants we saw early on when we had no treatments, no vaccines and it was much more deadly," said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York.

At 8:16 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 77 points, or 0.21%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 70.5 points, or 0.43%.

Some megacap companies have roared in the recent rally, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc jumping 1.7% in premarket trade after surging nearly 22% in value over the past four sessions. Apple , which is up marginally, is within spitting distance of becoming the first U.S. company to hit $3 trillion in market capitalization.

Chipmakers Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) Corp, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) Inc and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Inc all firmed 0.6%-1%.

Markets are in one of the seasonally strong periods, also called the Santa Claus Rally, with CFRA Research data showing the S&P 500 has on average risen 1.3% in the last 5 trading days of the year, and first two days of the new year since 1969.

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