Wall Street extends rally but Germany truck deaths reduce gains

(Reuters) - Wall Street extended a recent rally on
Monday but finished the session short of earlier highs
after several people were killed by a truck driven into a
Christmas market in Germany.
All three major U.S. indexes ended higher but lost some
steam after German police said a truck ran into a
crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing nine people
and injuring up to 50 others.
That rattled U.S. investors already eyeing potential
global troubles after the Russian ambassador to Turkey
was shot dead in Ankara.
"Markets want to be sure whether this is an isolated
incident. Will this disrupt economic activity in just this
area or will it be a wider area and for how long?," said
John Canally, chief economic strategist for LPL
Financial. "That's the playbook by which markets have
come to address these types of issues."
The S&P technology index <.SPLRCT> rose 0.61
percent, with Microsoft, Intel, Apple and Amazon.com
lifting the Nasdaq Composite to within a hair of last
Tuesday's record high close.
U.S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8
presidential election, with the S&P rising nearly 6
percent on bets that President-elect Donald Trump's
plans for deregulation and infrastructure spending will
boost the economy.
The Dow Jones industrial average is less than 1 percent
away from 20,000, a level it has never breached.
"The Trump rally is still with us. Every time something's
down for two days, people jump on it. People are
looking for buying opportunities," said Jake Dollarhide,
chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management
in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
However, some investors warn that uncertainty around
Trump's policies and the uncertainty of whether they
are approved by Congress pose major risks to current
stock prices.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 39.65
points or 0.20 percent to end at 19,883.06.
The S&P 500 <.SPX> ended up 0.20 percent at 2,262.53
after trading as high as 2,167.47.
The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 0.37 percent to
end at 5,457.44.
Microsoft <MSFT.O> rose 2.12 percent, Amazon.com
<AMZN.O> gained 1.09 percent, Intel climbed 1.60
percent and Apple <AAPL.O> climbed 0.58 percent. All
four provided the biggest boost to the Nasdaq and the
S&P 500.
United Technologies <UTX.N> rose 2.12 percent,
helping lift the Dow, after Credit Suisse upgraded the
stock to "outperform" and increased its price target.
Walt Disney <DIS.N> rose 1.34 percent after its "Rogue
One: A Star Wars Story" movie scored the second-
largest December opening in history.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the
NYSE by a 1.66-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.34-to-1
ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and no new
lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 157 new highs
and 38 new lows.
About 6.1 billion shares changed hands in U.S.
exchanges, well below the 7.5 billion daily average over
the last 20 sessions.