By Yasin Ebrahim

Investing.com – The S&P 500 and Dow eased from record highs Thursday, but remained supported by a rise in communication services as media stocks rallied.

It rose 0.1% to reach a record 4,808.52 intraday. After reaching an all-time high 36,679.44, it gained 0.1% (or 32 points) and was up 0.1%. Nasdaq rose 0.5%.

Communication services were pushed higher by a rally in ViacomCBS (NASDAQ:), and Discovery (NASDAQ:) and other video streaming stocks following expectations that U.S. video content spending is set to ramp up in 2022.

Financial Times reports that the top eight media organizations in America, including Netflix (NASDAQ :), plan to spend $100 billion or more on movies and shows.

Twitter (NYSE :), however, led the sector higher. It rose more than 5 percent as the social media continues to rebound from its four-month losses.

The decline of Micron, which was slowing down the growth in tech stocks, had weighed on Tech.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:) fell more than 1% after warning that fresh Covid shutdown in Xi’an, China, would weigh on output.

Sentiment on stocks was also boosted by positive vaccine news after Johnson & Johnson’s booster shot was found to be 85% effective in preventing hospitalizations in a South African study. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) was up about 0.5%.

Health experts warn of possible disruptions as Covid-19 continues its assault on the U.S. As the U.S. reached 488,000 daily new cases on Wednesday, it set a record-breaking one-day total.

Biogen (NASDAQ 🙂 lost its gains of the day before, falling more than 7.7% following reports by Samsung (KS 🙂 that it had been in discussions to purchase the healthcare company for $42billion.  

Cruise line companies including Carnival (NYSE:), and Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:) were on the back foot after after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday said travelers should avoid going on cruises even if they’re vaccinated

In the meantime, unemployment insurance claims fell from 206,000 to 198,000 in week end Dec. 25, according to economic data. The claims were at an all-time low of 52 years, which was in line with expectations.

Jefferies, however, warned that the jobless claims, which tend to deteriorate this time of the year, still  isn’t showing any impact from the Omicron surge.