US close: Dow Jones closes above 30,000 for first time

Wall Street stocks closed sharply higher on Tuesday after the Trump administration finally signalled its willingness to begin the transition process.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.54% at 30,046.24, while the S&P 500 was 1.62% firmer at 3,635.41 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.31% stronger at 12,036.79.

The Dow Jones closed 454.97 points higher on Tuesday, pushing the blue-chip index over 30,000 for the first time ever as it extended yesterday's vaccine-fuelled rally that came on the back a strong efficacy test from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford's candidate.

Major indices turned positive after General Services Administration chief Emily Murphy informed President-elect Joe Biden that the White House had made federal resources available for his transition into the Oval Office.

While Trump said he was in favour of the move, he also refused to concede the election yet again and vowed to "keep up the good fight".

As far as the coronavirus was concerned, the US notched another new record for Covid-19 infections, with the national seven-day average of daily new cases hitting 170,855 on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

On the macro front, home-price growth sped up in September, as competition amongst buyers was spurred on by a widespread shortage of homes on the market. House prices rose 7% year-on-year in September, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index, up from the annual growth rate of 5.8% recorded in the prior month to register the highest annual growth rate seen since May 2014.

Elsewhere, the Conference Board's monthly consumer confidence index declined in November, falling to 96.1 from an upwardly revised 101.4 in the previous month as heading into 2021, consumers did not appear to expect the US economy, nor the labour market, to gain any strength.

Lastly, the Richmond Fed's manufacturing index revealed that Fifth District manufacturers were "broadly positive" in November despite the composite fell from 29 in October to 15 in November.

In the corporate space, retailer Best Buy topped earnings guidance on the back of a same-store sales surge, while GAP shares tumbled in after-hours trading on the back of an earnings report that fell short of estimates.