NEW YORK, RAW – US stocks have risen, with Apple hitting a $US3 trillion market capitalisation and Tesla posting bumper delivery numbers, giving investors cheer on the first trading day of the new year

Apple’s shares rose 2.5 per cent to $US181.96 after it became the first company to reach the $US3 trillion milestone.

Tesla climbed 12.4 per cent after the company’s quarterly deliveries beat analysts’ estimates, riding out global chip shortages as it ramped up production in China.

The two stocks gave the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 on Monday.

“Those are the two big drivers for the S&P,” Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in Chicago, said.

 

Top Australian Brokers

 

But he also said investor worries about the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may have eased slightly even with rising case numbers.

The US Food and Drug Administration authorised a third dose of Pfizer’s vaccine for children aged 12 to 15.

All of Wall Street’s main indexes ended 2021 with monthly, quarterly and annual gains, recording their biggest three-year advance since 1999.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 154.94 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 36,493.24; the S&P 500 gained 20.48 points, or 0.43 per cent, at 4,786.66; and the Nasdaq Composite added 147.64 points, or 0.94 per cent, at 15,792.61.

Bank shares gained, with the banking index up 2.9 per cent following a jump in US Treasury yields on expectations of a series of US interest rate hikes this year.

Wells Fargo’s shares rose 5.3 per cent, helped by their upgrade to “overweight” by Barclays.

The benchmark S&P 500 added 27 per cent in 2021 and reported 70 record-high closes, its second-most ever, in a tumultuous year hit by new COVID-19 variants and supply-chain shortages.

The Dow added 18.7 per cent for the year and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 21.4 per cent.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.23-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.98-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 79 new highs and 54 new lows.