New York (AFP) - Global stocks mostly pushed higher on Tuesday in thin Christmas Eve trade, as investors waited to see if a so-called Santa Claus rally would sweep the market.

“Santa Claus comes tonight, but if stock market participants are lucky he will start sprinkling some gifts today, which marks the official start to the ‘Santa Claus rally’ period,” said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare.

US stock markets have traditionally fared well in the last five trading days of the year and the first two in the new year, with experts advancing a number of possible reasons as to why – including the festive holiday mood and purchasing ahead of the end of the tax year.

Wall Street opened modestly higher on the first day of this seven-day stretch and picked up speed as the session progressed. The S&P 500 finished up 1.1 percent.

While gains were broad-based, some of the biggest positive moves came from tech heavyweights like Facebook parent Meta, Netflix and Amazon, all of which won more than one percent.

“There’s a pretty fair amount of enthusiasm for momentum” stocks, said Jack Ablin, of Cresset Capital, who also noted that low trading volumes amplified the trend.

In Europe, Paris’s CAC 40 closed higher in a pre-holiday short session while Frankfurt was closed all day.

London also closed in the green, despite a week clouded by lackluster economic data that is “stoking concerns about the UK’s slowing momentum heading into the new year,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets closed up over one percent, as China announced fresh fiscal measures to boost its ailing economy.

On Tuesday, state media reported that China will raise its deficit in order to boost spending next year, as the world’s second-largest economy battles sluggish domestic consumption, a property crisis and soaring government debt.

Among individual companies, Honda shares closed more than 12 percent higher after the Japanese auto giant announced a buyback of up to 1.1 trillion yen ($7 billion), as it enters merger talks with struggling rival Nissan.

The talks between Honda and Nissan could create the world’s third-largest automaker, expanding development of EVs and self-driving tech.

Honda’s CEO insisted it was not a bailout for Nissan, which announced thousands of job cuts last month and reported a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit.

- Key figures around 1850 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.9 percent at 43,297.03 (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 1.1 percent at 6,040.04 (close)

New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.4 percent at 20,031.13 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 8,136.99 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.1 percent at 7,282.69 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: Closed

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 39,036.85 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.1 percent at 20,098.29 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 3,393.53 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0389 from $1.0405 on Monday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2531 from $1.2536

Dollar/yen: UP at 157.31 yen from 157.17 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.89 pence from 83.00 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.2 percent at $70.10 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.3 percent at $73.58 per barrel

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