Investing.com -- The major indexes made moderate advances on Monday, fueled by energy equities.
The DJIA closed up 0.20% at 19883.06.
The Nasdaq was up even more, 0.37%, closing at 5457.44.
The S&P 500 was also up 0.20%, ending the day at 2262.53.
The main benchmarks again flirted with all-time highs set last week, but the momentus figure of a 20,000 Dow has yet to come
The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.56% climbed 30 points, or 0.6% to 5,467, on intraday trading.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.19% was up 42 points, or 0.2%, at 19,886, during intraday trading, struggling to smite the psychological barrier of a 20,000 closing figure.
The index is up 14% after marking the longest weekly run of gains since November 2015 during last week.
The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.23% was up 5 points, or 0.2% at 2,263, with eight of the 11 main sectors climbing higher, during intraday trading.
Real estate shares were leading gainers, up 0.9%, during the morning, followed by telecoms and technology sectors, up by 0.7%. Financials and energy shares, the best performers this year, trimmed back nearly 0.5%, but energy surged later in the day.
Yellen made a speech at University of Baltimore, for the winter graduating class, and indicated that the job market is the strongest it has been in 10 years now, and that this is the perfect time to find a new job for new college graduates, with promising positions available, and raises likely in the coming years.
President-elect Trump, as expected, exceeded 270 votes in the U.S. electoral college, a formality which makes him now the next president of the U.S. Agitated supporters of Hillary Clinton had tried to stop the electors from voting for Trump today, though electors are required by law to vote for the popular vote winner of their particular state. Otherwise, Trump did no make major news today, though nominated a new Secretary of the Army while on working Christmas vacation in Florida at his Mar-a-Lago Resort with his family and leading members of the transition team. Trump takes power in just over a month, promising the biggest shake-up in Washington D.C. since the New Deal.