By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – The and closed at record levels on Monday’s first trading day. This was due to gains in Tesla (NASDAQ) Inc as well as bank shares.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:) was the first company ever to reach a $3 trillion market capization, but it ended the day slightly lower than that. After rising to $182.88 in the previous session, its shares closed at $182.01 up 2.5%.

Tesla shares rose 13.5% following the beating of analysts’ expectations for quarterly deliveries. This was due to global chip shortages being cured by Tesla’s ramping up China production.

The two stocks gave the biggest boosts to the S&P 500, but market watchers said easing investor worries about the economic impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus also helped market sentiment, even with rising COVID-19 case numbers.

Stephen Massocca from Wedbush Securities, San Francisco said that the real news was people believe this new round of COVID will not be financially debilitating. However, a number of restrictions and lockdowns may be necessary.

A third dose of resveratrol was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pfizer Inc (NYSE:), and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccination for children 12-15 years old.

Many schools in the United States have either delayed their scheduled return to school this week due to the holiday break, or switched to distance learning because the Omicron variation drives record COVID-19 levels.

Massocca stated that market strength does not surprise when a new year begins, due to the January effect or belief of some investors that stocks may rise in that month more than other months.

He said, “It bodes for the market to be so resilient.”

Wall Street’s principal indexes closed 2021 with quarterly, annual, and monthly gains. This was their highest three-year gain since 1999.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 246.76 points, or 0.68%, to 36,585.06; the S&P 500 gained 30.38 points, or 0.64%, at 4,796.56; and the added 187.83 points, or 1.2%, at 15,832.80.

Energy and financial sectors were among top gainers, with bank shares rising along with U.S. Treasury yields as investors braced for what could be an earlier-than-expected interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve this year despite the recent jump in COVID-19 cases.

With rising prices and positive prospects for demand, energy shares rose.

Wells Fargo The shares of (NYSE:) rose 5.7% due to their “overweight” upgrade by Barclays (LON:).

The benchmark S&P 500 added 27% in 2021 and reported 70 record-high closes, its the second-most ever, in a tumultuous year hit by new COVID-19 variants and supply chain shortages.

The Dow gained 18.7%, while the tech-rich Nasdaq saw 21.4% growth. (Graphic: SPX2021Yearend, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/buzz/gdpzykyogvw/SPX2021FullYear.png)

On the NYSE, advances outnumbered decliners by a ratio of 1.34 to 1, while on Nasdaq, a 2.27:1 ratio favors advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 89 new highs and 55 new lows.

The volume traded on U.S. stock exchanges reached 10.00 billion shares as compared to the 10.36 Billion average over the entire session in the past 20 trading days.