Dow, S&P 500 finish first session of 2022 at records

Major Wall Street indices closed at fresh records Monday and Apple briefly reached a $3 trillion valuation in a bullish open to 2022, despite expectations for higher interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.7 percent at 36,585.06, a record.

The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.6 percent to 4,796.56, also a record, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.2 percent to 15,832.80.

The new landmarks come on the heels of a series of all-time highs in December as markets continue to bet the latest surge in Covid-19 cases won't derail economic growth.

Comments from health experts characterising the Omicron variant as less lethal than earlier Covid-19 strains have boosted markets.

A bigger question mark is the shift in US monetary policy, with investors now betting that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this year. 

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note vaulted above 1.6 percent Monday, the latest indication of this expectation. 

A note from Briefing.com said the rise in yields may reflect "an improving perspective on the economy."

Among individual companies, Tesla surged 13.5 percent as it reported delivering more than 936,000 cars of all models in 2021, an increase of 87 percent over the previous year following a strong fourth quarter.

Apple finished 2.5 percent higher and a hair under $3 trillion in market capitalization in the latest demonstration of the tech industry's pandemic surge.