Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Monday, extending the strong upward move seen last Friday’s session. While the Dow crept up to a new record closing high, the tech-heavy Nasdaq showed a more notable move to the upside.
The major averages all finished the day in positive territory. The Dow crept up 20.20 points or less than a tenth of a percent to 50,135.87, the Nasdaq jumped 207.46 points or 0.9 percent to 23,238.67 and the S&P 500 (SPI:SP500) climbed 32.52 points or 0.5 percent to 6,964.82.
The strength on Wall Street partly reflected an extended rebound by tech stocks, which contributed to the rally seen last Friday.
Software giant Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) helped lead the sector higher, spiking by 9.6 percent after D.A. Davidson upgraded its rating on the company’s stock to Buy from Neutral.
However, traders seemed reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the release of several key U.S. economic reports in the coming days.
The Labor Department’s closely watched monthly jobs report, which was delayed due to the brief government shutdown last week, is likely to be in the spotlight.
The report is expected to show employment climbed by 70,000 jobs in January after rising by 50,000 jobs in December, while the unemployment rate is expected to hold at 4.4 percent.
Reports on retail sales and consumer price inflation are also likely to attract attention, as the data could impact the outlook for interest rates.
“With Jerome Powell nearing the end of his term and Kevin Warsh widely expected to take over as Fed Chair, markets are increasingly sensitive to how data influences rate expectations,” said Daniela Hathorn, Senior Market Analyst at Capital.com. “While leadership changes may affect tone and communication, the data remains the ultimate driver.”
She added, “As a result, the employment and inflation releases this week will be critical in determining whether markets lean back into expectations of easing — a scenario that could support equities and precious metals — or whether sticky inflation forces continued restraint.”
Sector News
Gold stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances amid a sharp increase by the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 6.1 percent.
Significant strength was also visible among networking and software stocks, with the NYSE Arca Networking Index and the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index surging by 4 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively.
Brokerage and semiconductor stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, while healthcare and airline stocks moved to the downside.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved sharply higher during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index surged by 3.9 percent, while South Korea’s Kospi spiked by 4.1 percent.
The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index jumped by 1.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index climbed by 0.6 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.2 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the session before closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.198 percent.
Looking Ahead
Trading on Tuesday may be impacted by reaction to the latest U.S. economic data, including reports on retail sales and import and export prices.
SOURCE: RTTNEWS