US STOCKS-Wall St set for lower open in holiday-thinned trading

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By Medha Singh and Purvi Agarwal

Dec 26 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set for a slightly lower open on Thursday in light trading volumes after the Christmas holiday, as investors took stock of their portfolios and looked for a year-end boost from the so-called Santa Claus rally.

Most megacap stocks were lower, with Nvidia NVDA.O dropping 0.8% in premarket trading, while Google-parent Alphabet GOOGL.O shed 0.5%.

Yields on government bonds inched higher across the board, with the one on the benchmark 10-year note US10YT=RR last at 4.6312%.

"Now we're at an inflection point on the Treasury yield, especially the 10-year ... any move higher and it tends to create equity market weakness and that's what I'm seeing this morning," said George Cipolloni, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management.

At 08:33 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were down 148 points, or 0.34%, S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 21 points, or 0.34% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 88 points, or 0.42%.

Markets in Europe, London and parts of Asia were closed on Thursday.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq wrapped up Tuesday's truncated session with a third straight day of gains, lifted by megacap and growth stocks.

Gains in Apple AAPL.O, Tesla TSLA.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O, Amazon AMZN.O, Nvidia NVDA.O, Microsoft MSFT.O and Meta Platforms META.O accounted for more than half of the S&P 500's 28.4% total return this year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices Senior Index Analyst Howard Silverblatt.

Without the Magnificent Seven stocks, the benchmark index's total return would have been 13.2% in 2024, Silverblatt added.

U.S. stocks have hit a speed bump this month following an election-led rally in November as they contend with the Federal Reserve's projection of fewer interest rate cuts in 2025.

The three main indexes have hit multiple record highs this year on a lower interest rate environment and the prospects of artificial intelligence boosting corporate profits. However, investors are starting to question the sustainability of the rally due to stretched valuations and as megacaps continue to attract more investor funds.

Yet, investors are hoping for a typically strong finish in the final days of the year - called the "Santa Clause rally" - a pattern attributed to low liquidity, tax-loss harvesting and investing of year-end bonuses.

The S&P 500 has gained an average of 1.3% in the last five trading days of December and the first two days of January since 1969, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. A December without a Santa rally has been followed by a weaker-than-average year, data from LPL Financial going back to 1950 showed.

Meanwhile, a Labor Department report showed the number of new Americans filing for jobless benefits last week fell to 219,000, compared with the 224,000 expected by economists in a Reuters poll.

Separately, major banks and business groups sued the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, alleging the U.S. central bank's annual "stress tests" of Wall Street firms violate the law.

Cryptocurrency-related stocks were down after bitcoin fell over 3%. Coinbase Global COIN.O was off 2%, while Riot Platforms RIOT.O and Mara Holdings MARA.O shed over 2.5% each.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

((Medha.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; +91 80 6210 0592; X, formerly Twitter: @medhasinghs;))