The Santa Claus rally refers to a seasonal tendency for the S&P 500 to rise over the last five days trading days of a calendar year and the first two of the new year. U.S. stocks pared early losses on Thursday, with the Dow wavering in and out of positive territory in recent trade.

U.S. equity futures moved lower in early Thursday trading, while Treasury bond yields remained elevated in the wake of the Federal Reserve's cautious rate stance, as investors hit pause on the early Santa Claus rally.

Some of the biggest winners were mega-cap tech stocks, with Tesla up by 6% while Broadcom, Netflix, and Amazon each gained about 2%.