NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed higher to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week on Monday, buoyed partly by a continued rebound by technology stocks in a broad advance that saw gains among almost all of the 11 S&P 500 sectors.

The bounce in tech names began late last week and was driven by Micron Technology's (MU.O), opens new tab blowout forecasts and a cooler-than-expected inflation report, which has left the S&P 500 and Dow less than 1% from their record closing levels set on December 11

Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab shares rose and provided the biggest lift to the benchmark S&P 500. Reuters reported the company has told Chinese clients it aims to start shipping its second-most powerful AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February.

Micron climbed 4% while most other chipmakers also advanced to put the PHLX semiconductor index (.SOX), opens new tab up 1.1%.

"I don't necessarily think it's going to go much higher; it's going to continue to churn," said Ken Polcari, partner and chief market strategist at Slate

Today we're trading higher, but I wouldn't be surprised if we back off again and then we just rally again right into about where we are."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab rose 227.79 points, or 0.47%, to 48,362.68, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab gained 43.99 points, or 0.64%, to 6,878.49 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab gained 121.21 points, or 0.52%, to 23,428.83.

December has historically been a strong period for stock markets. Since 1950, the Santa Claus rally has been reflected by the S&P 500 rising by an average of 1.3% over the last five trading days of the year and the first two trading days in January, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.

This year, that period starts on Wednesday and runs through January 5.

Optimism about AI, signs of a resilient U.S. economy, and expectations for monetary policy easing have outweighed concerns about U.S. tariffs, helping to put the three main U.S. indexes on course for their third consecutive year of gains. The S&P 500 is up 17% on the year.

Most of the 11 S&P sectors traded higher. Materials (.SPLRCM), opens new tab, up 1.4% and energy (.SPNY), opens new tab, up 1.1%, were among the best performers as commodity prices jumped. The tech sector (.SPLRCT), opens new tab gained 0.4% while financials (.SPSY), opens new tab gained 1.3% to close at a record.#BinanceBlockchainWeek #WriteToEarnUpgrade #BTCVSGOLD #USCryptoStakingTaxReview #TrumpTariffs

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