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U.S. stocks closed at record highs on Monday, as investors built on momentum from last week into at least the first session of the new year. The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq each advanced.

U.S. equities posted another year of solid gains in 2021, rising by 27{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} and delivering a rare third consecutive double-digit annual percentage increase. Within the S&P 500, the energy and real estate sectors outperformed, gaining more than 42{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} each during the year for these sectors’ best annual gains on record.

Still, the blue-chip index’s robust overall rise was powered on a stock-by-stock basis by just a handful of mega-cap names. According to Goldman Sachs analyst David Kostin, the five largest components of the S&P 500 (or Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google) together returned 37{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} last year – and now constitute about 23{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of the entire index.

“In 2022, variables associated with earnings and valuation will determine the performance of the S&P 500 index and its underlying constituents,” Kostin wrote in a note Monday. He expects the index to rise another about 7{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} to end 2022 at 5,100, with his outlook one among several Wall Street predictions calling for a gain to more than 5,000 for the S&P 500 this year.

“From an earnings perspective, decelerating economic growth will limit sales gains for many companies. Consequently, stock return dispersion will be most evident when viewed through the margin channel,” Kostin added. “Stocks with high labor cost ratios and exposure to wage inflation will likely underperform.”

But for the S&P 500 as a whole, a 27{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} rise and 29{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} total return this past year bodes favorably for the coming period. In the 71 years spanning back to 1950, when the S&P 500 posted a total return of 25{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} or more in a year, stocks rose 82{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} of the time the next year, according to data from Truist Advisory Services co-chief investment officer Keith Lerner. However, the magnitude of returns could moderate.

“I think that 2022 is going to be a good year that tends to follow a great year,” Sam Stovall, CFRA chief investment strategist, told Yahoo Finance Live late last week. “We certainly have a high wall of worry that we’re going to have to scale … in terms of inflation concerns, what the Fed will be doing with interest rates, et cetera.”

And indeed, this week investors will be eyeing new economic data including the Labor Department’s December jobs report to help show the relative strength of U.S. economic growth in the final weeks of the year, as inflation concerns and labor shortages continued to ripple across the country. Risks around the latest surge of the coronavirus are also weighing, with impacts to the labor market from the Omicron variant potentially set to show in the final monthly jobs report for 2021.

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4:05 p.m. ET: Stocks end the first session of 2022 with record closing high: S&P 500 gains 0.6{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}, Nasdaq jumps 1.2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}

Here were the main moves in markets as of 4:05 p.m. ET:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): +30.38 (+0.64{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 4,796.56
Dow (^DJI): +246.76 (+0.68{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 36,585.06
Nasdaq (^IXIC): +187.83 (+1.20{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 15,832.80
Crude (CL=F): +$0.79 (+1.05{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to $76.00 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$25.50 (-1.39{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to $1,803.10 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +11.6 bps to yield 1.6280{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}

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1:28 p.m. ET: Treasury yields climb, 30-year yield rises above 2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} for the first time since November

The U.S. Treasury yield curve steepened on Monday as bonds on the long end of the curve rose markedly.

The 30-year yield jumped by nearly 14 basis points around 1:30 p.m. in New York to top 2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} for the first time since November, and the benchmark 10-year yield broke above 1.6{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} for the first time in more than one month.

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12:08 p.m. ET: Apple shares gain alongside broader tech rally, as iPhone-maker nears $3 trillion market cap

Shares of heavily weighted tech stock Apple (AAPL) gained more than 2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} in intraday trading on Monday, helping lead the Nasdaq’s more than 0.6{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} rise during the session.

The iPhone-maker closed in on the $3 trillion market capitalization mark, and would need a share price of $182.86 apiece to reach that level. The stock gained nearly 34{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} during 2021, outpacing the broader market.

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11:00 a.m. ET: U.S. construction spending rises for ninth straight month in November as homebuilding picks up

Domestic spending on construction rose for a ninth straight month in November, helped in large part by a pick-up in residential home construction.

Construction spending in the U.S. rose at a 0.4{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} monthly clip in November, the Commerce Department said on Monday. This matched October’s rate, which was in turn upwardly revised from the 0.2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} monthly increase previously reported.

Private construction led the gain for November, with this spending up 0.6{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} and. residential construction spending alone jumping by nearly 1{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}. However, public construction project spending declined by 0.2{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}. during the month, weighed down by a 0.4{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a} decrease in outlays by the federal government.

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10:01 a.m. ET: Final December Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI revised down as shortages weigh on growth

IHS Markit’s final December U.S. purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector came in slightly lower than previously reported the final monthly print, reflecting supply-side shortages still weighing on goods-producing industries.

The headline PMI ticked down to 57.7 for December from the 57.8 previously reported. This marked the lowest print in a year. Readings above the neutral level of 50.0 indicate expansion in a sector.

“December saw another subdued increase in U.S. manufacturing output as material shortages and supplier delays dragged on,” Sian Jones, senior economist at IHS Markit, said in a press statement. “Although some reprieve was seen as supply chains deteriorated to the smallest extent since May, the impact of substantially longer lead times for inputs thwarted firms’ ability to produce finished goods yet again.”

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9:58 a.m. ET: When looking at year-end price targets, ‘you shouldn’t be looking for the exact number’: Strategist

With Wall Street strategists having cast their expectations about where the stock market is likely to end the year, investors should consider not so much firms’ exact price targets, but their commentary around current market conditions, according to at least one strategist.

“When it comes to outlooks, there’s something that I tend to think and that is, obviously everybody is putting these out for just a general thought,” Michael Antonelli, Robert W. Baird & Co. strategist, told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday. “And honestly when you read an outlook, you shouldn’t be looking for the exact number because obviously that is a tough number to pick. What you want to be looking for is how that person thinks about the market and how they think about the economy.”

“When I think about the market and economy right now, I think about momentum,” he added. “Momentum is one of the most durable factors when it comes to the stock market … we have a lot going for us right now.”

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9:30 a.m. ET: Stocks open higher

Here’s where markets were trading just after the opening bell:

S&P 500 (^GSPC): +19.45 (+0.41{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 4,785.63
Dow (^DJI): +81.85 (+0.23{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 36,420.15
Nasdaq (^IXIC): +114.00 (+0.75{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 15,761.93
Crude (CL=F): -$0.74 (+0.98{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to $74.47 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$19.70 (-1.08{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to $1,808.90 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +9.3 bps to yield 1.591{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}

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7:45 a.m. ET Monday: Stock futures look to open near records

Here’s where markets were trading ahead of the opening bell Monday morning:

S&P 500 futures (ES=F): +27 point (+0.57{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}), to 4,785.50
Dow futures (YM=F): +166.00 points (+0.46{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}), to 36,392.00
Nasdaq futures (NQ=F): +110.75 points (+0.68{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to 16,431.50
Crude (CL=F): +$0.32 (+0.43{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to $75.53 a barrel
Gold (GC=F): -$6.20 (-0.34{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}) to $1,822.40 per ounce
10-year Treasury (^TNX): +3.5 bps to yield 1.463{1b90e59fe8a6c14b55fbbae1d9373c165823754d058ebf80beecafc6dee5063a}

Photo by: NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx 2021 12/28/21 People walk past the New York Stock Exchange during afternoon trading on December 28, 2021 in New York.

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Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met face-to-face with his Russian counterpart on Thursday to demand Russia pull back troops from the border with Ukraine, as tensions and suspicions grow in a confrontation over Ukraine’s increasingly close ties with NATO and the West.

Russia on one side and Ukraine, the U.S. and its NATO allies on the other traded fresh accusations and threats. The West, fearing that Moscow could invade Ukraine, threatened the Kremlin with the toughest sanctions yet if it launches an attack. Russia, seeing new U.S. and European support for Ukraine’s military, sternly warned that any presence of NATO troops and weapons on Ukrainian soil represents a “red line.”

Fears that Russia would invade its neighbor or seek to undermine the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have dominated Blinken’s travels this week to meet with European allies.

Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Thursday on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Stockholm, Sweden.

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“The United States and our allies and partners are deeply concerned by evidence that Russia has made plans for significant aggressive moves against Ukraine, including efforts to destabilize Ukraine from within and large-scale military operations,” Blinken told reporters.

During his meeting with Blinken, Lavrov charged that the West was “playing with fire” by denying Russia a say in any further NATO expansion into countries of the former Soviet Union. Zelenskyy has pushed for Ukraine to join the alliance, which holds out the promise of membership but hasn’t set a a timeline.

“I want to make it crystal clear: Turning our neighbors into a bridgehead for confrontation with Russia, the deployment of NATO forces in the regions strategically important for our security, is categorically unacceptable,” Lavrov said he told the OSCE meeting.

The United States and its European allies have struggled to warn Russia off any military action and reaffirm support for Ukraine without moving so forcefully as to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a pretext to invade.

American officials and their allies acknowledge the uncertainties, including whether Putin is prepared to invade Ukraine or is maneuvering to bring President Joe Biden into one-on-one talks on security concessions.

Putin said Wednesday that Moscow would seek Western guarantees precluding any further NATO expansion and deployment of its weapons near Russia’s borders. Lavrov followed up on Putin’s call for a new security arrangement, stating that reaching an agreement on a set of “long-term and legally binding security guarantees is imperative to prevent sliding into a confrontational scenario.”

Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and former deputy secretary general of NATO, said he sees little or no prospect of the U.S. or NATO providing Putin with such guarantees. “He’s simply not going to get” an agreement to rule out further NATO expansion, Vershbow told The Associated Press.

Vershbow also ruled out the U.S. or NATO agreeing to halt the kind of military assistance they have been providing to Ukraine since 2014, including arms, training and intelligence sharing.

Russia and Ukraine have remained locked in a tense tug-of-war since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country’s Kremlin-friendly president and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 14,000.

Vershbow said Russia would not have an easy time if it chose to invade Ukraine, whose military is better equipped and more capable than it was in 2014. “It would be very costly for the Russians in terms of casualties,” he said.

Ukraine and the U.S. estimate that Russia has at least 90,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, while Russia charged this week that Ukraine has amassed about 125,000 troops, or about half its military, near the rebel-controlled areas in the east.

Addressing the OSCE meeting, Blinken urged Russia “to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity to de-escalate, reverse the recent troop buildup” and “return forces to normal peaceful positions.”

The Kremlin has voiced concern that Ukraine may use force to reclaim control of the rebel east. And adding to the tensions, the head of a Russian-allied, self-proclaimed separatist republic in the east appeared on Russian state television to say that he could turn to Moscow for military assistance if the region faced a Ukrainian attack.

Ukrainian officials have denied an intention to reclaim the rebel regions by force.

Blinken sought Thursday to pre-empt Russian claims that Ukraine was threatening Russian interests. “Ukraine is in no way posing a threat to Russia or seeking a confrontation that would justify a Russian military intervention,” the American secretary of state insisted.

Blinken also met separately with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Kuleba tweeted afterward that Ukraine and the United States “are closely working together on developing a comprehensive deterrence package, including severe economic sanctions, to demotivate Russia from further aggressive moves.”

John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said Thursday that Putin appeared to be “testing Ukraine. He’s testing the West.”

Herbst, in a discussion at the Atlantic Council think tank, argued the Biden administration’s response has been strong so far, leaving Putin “hoping now simply to get some sort of concession either from Ukraine or perhaps from the United States.”

“Putin is definitely as serious as he could be” in the standoff, countered Ukraine analyst Hanna Shelest.

Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Robert Burns in Washington, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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Stocks rise to kick off new year of trading