[1]BAM! How’s that for starting off the new year?
A New Year’s Eve bump in Monday’s trading was followed by a full-blown rally on Wednesday after lawmakers put the finishing touches on a bill to avert the fiscal cliff[2] late Tuesday.
The net result was all three indices finishing well in the black. The Nasdaq roared ahead 3.07% to finish at 3,112.26, the S&P 500 vaulted up 2.54% to 1,462.42, and the Dow — fueled by gains in every last component — gained 2.35% to close at 13,412.71.
The Dow was lifted higher by the likes of Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT[3]), which moved ahead more than 4%, while shares of aluminum producer Alcoa (NYSE:AA[4]) finished 3% better.
However, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ[5]) led the Big Board with 5% gains, while fellow tech stocks Intel (NASDAQ:INTC[6], +3.7%) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT[7], +3.6%) frolicked along. Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL[8]) 3% rise on the day was welcome news to the S&P and Nasdaq. Financial stocks thrived, too, with Citigroup (NYSE:C[9], +4.3%) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC[10], +3.6%) leading banks higher.
Bridging tech and finance, credit card processors MasterCard (NYSE:MA, +3.9%) and Visa (NYSE:V, +2.5%) both hit all-time highs during the day.
Shares of ZipCar (NASDAQ:ZIP[11]) rocketed ahead nearly 50% after Avis (NASDAQ:CAR[12]) announced it will purchase[13] the car-sharing and hourly rental company supplier for $491 million, representing a 49% premium to Monday’s closing price. Shares of Avis finished up over 4% on the news.
However, bucking the day’s trend in a big way was headphone and audio accessories company Skullcandy (NASDAQ:SKUL[14]), which lost nearly 13% after getting pasted in a report[15] by Jefferies (NYSE:JEF[16]) that saw its rating fall from “buy” to “underperform.”
Three Up
- Molycorp (NYSE:MCP[17]): Up 10.1% (95 cents) to $10.39.
- Dendreon (NASDAQ:DNDN[18]): Up 9.8% (52 cents) to $5.81.
- U.S. Steel (NYSE:X[19]): Up 8.6% ($2.04) to $25.89.
Three Down
- Vivus (NASDAQ:VVUS[20]): Down 4.4% (59 cents) to $12.83.
- Consol Energy (NYSE:CNX[21]): Down 3.4% ($1.09) to $31.01.
- Aeropostale (NYSE:ARO[22]): Down 3.1% (40 cents) to $12.61.
Marc Bastow is an Assistant Editor at InvestorPlace.com. As of this writing, he was long AAPL, MSFT and INTC.