S&P 500's Strong December Start Pushing Stocks Toward Hot Year-End Finish

The month of December started out on a positive note yesterday (Wednesday) as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 2.16% on that first trading day of the month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.27% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 2%. Wednesday's gain was followed by a 1.28% rise in the S&P 500 Thursday - only the second time this year the index has climbed more than 1% two days in a row. Two-day consecutive gains of more than 1% have only happened nine times since the bull market started in March 2009. And these handsome gains bode well for the rest of December.