The Dow Jones gained 0.74% to 35,753.89 points, the Nasdaq index, with a strong technological coloring, 1.18% to 15,521.89 points, and the extended S&P 500 index, 1.02% to 4,696, 56 points.

"We have said so much that there will be a + rally + at the end of the year (series of increases for the indices), it is a bit like the tradition of the trader", commented Gregori Volokhine, president of Meeschaert Financial Services.

"Now there are also reasons," he continued.

"The main one is that all the signs we have are that the risk that Omicron is as serious as Delta or that the previous strains of Covid are receding."

Mr. Volokhine illustrated his point by taking the example of airlines, from Delta Air lines (+ 1.58%) to United Airlines (+ 1.46%), which have advanced despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

The same goes for cruise passengers, a priori on the front line in the face of the Omicron risk, as shown by the recent cruise of a Royal Caribbean ship, of which at least 48 passengers tested positive for coronavirus at the end of the trip, Saturday.

Yet Royal Caribbean (+ 3.79%), Carnival (+ 3.46%) or Norwegian (+ 1.94%) were all featured on Wednesday.

All three returned to their pre-identification level with Omicron at the end of November.

On Monday, Carnival CEO Arnold Donald said the group plans to return to profitability in the second half of 2022. He also announced that Carnival had started to generate net cash again in November.

Another sign of the beginning of investor enthusiasm, the VIX index, which measures volatility, fell by 11%, close to its level before the arrival of Omicron.

At the other end of the Omicron spectrum, Pfizer has capitalized (+ 1.02% to 59.55 dollars) on the emergency authorization of its pill against Covid-19 by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA).

On the new economy side, Alibaba drank the cup (-4.20% to 117.81 dollars), while the Chinese authorities on Wednesday suspended a partnership with the remote computing subsidiary (cloud) of the conglomerate, according to related media of the government.

The group is being sanctioned for its supposed mismanagement of the flaw linked to a computer code module called Log4j, which has placed a large number of companies and governments in a situation of vulnerability to a cyber attack.

Not a day without Tesla news.

In an interview with satirical site Babylon Bee, co-founder and CEO Elon Musk said he had "roughly" sold 10% of his Tesla titles in recent months, as he had publicly promised.

Leaked in recent weeks, the stock recovered on Wednesday (+ 7.49% to $ 1,008.87), which once again propelled Tesla beyond $ 1,000 billion in market capitalization.

As for the chain of used car dealers CarMax it fell (-6.66% to 127.87 dollars), although having published, before market, a turnover and a net profit higher than expectations.

In the bond market, yields eased.

The benchmark rate for 10-year US government bonds was 1.45%, against 1.48% the day before.

The strength of this end-of-year acceleration on the equity markets could be put to the test on Thursday by a series of macroeconomic indicators, in particular the PCE index, the inflation barometer most closely monitored by the American central bank (Fed ).

© 2021 AFP