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Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., November 30, 2017.
Stocks ended higher Thursday after some companies announced they would increase wages and spend on new construction thanks to the savings from a lower corporate tax rate. The GOP tax bill sets the rate at 21 percent, down from the current 35 percent.
Both financials and energy, which are among the sectors expected to benefit from tax reform, led the rally.
“For this market to continue to go higher and to hold supported at certain key levels you need the financials to do better, you need energy to do better and that’s what we’re getting,” said Peter Costa, president of Empire Executions.
“You’re going to see a continuation of this. … I do think we’ll probably see 25,000 for Christmas or right around that time,” he added.
Equities have moved higher this year as investors bet on lower corporate taxes. The S&P 500 is up 19.9 percent in 2017.
However, because of that rally some have been skeptical of what is known as the “Santa Claus rally,” Costa told “Closing Bell.”
According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, the Santa rally official begins Friday, the start of the final five trading days of 2017, and ends at the close Jan. 3.
“There were a lot of analysts that felt that because the market had moved so well over the course of this year that we might not see that Santa Claus rally. Well you are seeing it and you are seeing money flow into equities,” Costa said.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert and Patti Domm contributed to this report.
