By Jesse Cohen
Investing.com - U.S. stock and bond markets will see a shortened session in observation of Christmas Eve on Tuesday, with equity markets ending at 1:00PM ET, while bond markets are set for a 2PM ET close.
Both markets will be closed on Wednesday for Christmas Day.
They reopen for a full session Thursday and Friday, but trading volumes are expected to remain light due to the holidays as many traders already closed books before the end of the year.
Stocks climbed higher on Monday, with Wall Street’s major indices hitting new records, as the year-end rally continued.
The benchmark S&P 500 index has closed higher in eight of the past nine sessions, taking its gains on the year to 28.6% through Monday’s close, as investors cheered progress in trade relations between Washington and Beijing, three interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and upbeat economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average also achieved a new all-time high on Monday. The index is currently hovering at 28,500, having rallied by more than 22% year-to-date. There are seemingly few roadblocks in the way of the Dow hitting the psychologically important 30,000-mark.
This time of year tends to be beneficial for investors as the so-called Santa Claus rally has historically given the stock market a short boost.
During the final five trading days of the year and the first two trading days of the new year, the S&P 500 has posted a 1.3% gain on average since 1950, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
To see more of Investing.com’s weekly comics, visit: http://www.investing.com/analysis/comics
-- Reuters contributed to this report