U.S. stocks were mixed in intraday trading Wednesday, struggling to stay afloat after the S&P 500 took a breather in the previous trading session to cease a four-day climb toward its 70th all-time high.

The Dow was up for the sixth consecutive day, while the Nasdaq faltered, further dragged down by continued selling in tech stocks. The S&P was mostly flat.

“The market’s up about 30% this year, the S&P on a total return basis,” Hennessy Gas Utility Fund Portfolio Manager Josh Wein told Yahoo Finance Live. “With that in mind, I think the good times will continue.”

Main Street Asset Management CIO Erin Gibbs told Yahoo Finance Live that pullbacks caused by the Omicron variant resemble those that occurred when the Delta strain first took course and are likely to see the same gradual but upward recovery.

“We encourage our clients to stay in the markets, not to get out, because when those recoveries hit and when the sentiment changes, it happens so quickly that often by the time you get back into the market, you’ve already missed out,” she said.

Global COVID-19 cases hit a daily record this week, with more than 1.44 million worldwide infections reported as of Monday, according to Bloomberg. Infections from the highly-transmissible Omicron variant — found to spread 70 times faster than previous strains — comprised much of the newly tracked cases, though studies indicate illness caused by the strain is less likely to be severe or lead to hospitalizations.

The CDC also eased its guidance for quarantining after exposure to the virus, halving its recommendation to isolate upon a positive test from 10 to five days.

December was a volatile month for investors who weighed the strain’s impact on the economy, but recent developments that indicate Omicron may cause milder disease helped markets shake off earlier concerns.

“Perversely, bad news around Omicron might be good news for the markets because it gives the Fed the impetus to continue with these very loose monetary policies,” Opimas LLC Chief Executive Officer Octavio Marenzi told Yahoo Finance Live. “Too much good news for the real economy might actually be quite bad for the markets.”

On Tuesday, U.S. home price growth slowed for the third straight month but continued to climb overall. The Standard & Poor’s S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index. posted a 19.1% annual gain in October, down from 19.7% from September. The 20-City Composite posted a 18.4% annual gain, down from 19.1% a month earlier.

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Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-december-29-2021-233614054.html