A nice green Monday awaited investors to start a new trading week, and across the board a positive, healthy sentiment sent all four major indexes higher on the day: the Dow rose 0.55% while the S&P 500 grew 0.99%. The Nasdaq beat the pack, +1.41%, while the Russell 2000 also gained 0.55%. This is the first positive close on a Monday in the month of May this year.
For the past six weeks or so, market indexes looked reluctant to stretch valuations too far, too fast. Instead of an economic explosion some had expected here near mid-2021, we’ve more resembled a boat riding the locks until it can get out to sea. As such, weeks ago we began to see a zero-sum trade-off between growth stocks and cyclicals, then back again. More recently, investors would take the air out of valuations to start a new week, only to fill gaps by the end of it.
The Nasdaq leading the way today indicates strength in tech stocks:
Facebook
FB
and
Alphabet
GOOGL
rose about 2.75%. Even better were the chipmakers:
NVIDIA
NVDA
+4.25% and
Applied Materials
AMAT
+4.6%. These stocks rivaled the travel/leisure/entertainment plays like
Royal Caribbean
RCL
+3.7% and
MGM Resorts
MGM
+5.14% in Monday stock performance.
Beyond Meat
BYND
got a double-upgrade from a prominent broker and closed +10.5% on the day.
Currently, the S&P 500 is on track to close May in the positive, while the Nasdaq still looks down for the month — though a mere 4% from its all-time high close set early in the year. The S&P is roughly 1% from its own all-time high. Inflation is still a concern, though today provided no direct reminders by way of economic data. By Friday, this may change; in Zacks Chief Strategist John Blank’s
Global Week Ahead piece today
, he notes specific attention will be paid to Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) at the end of the week, which could potentially rock the boat.
This trepidation we’d been seeing in the market over the past six weeks was not unfounded. Supply/demand challenges leading to price spikes in things like lumber for home building and lack of applicants for low-wage jobs have kept the launch of the Great Reopening waiting out the headwinds. It would appear the countdown may resume again, at least for the near term.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>
Infrastructure Stock Boom to Sweep America
A massive push to rebuild the crumbling U.S. infrastructure will soon be underway. It’s bipartisan, urgent, and inevitable. Trillions will be spent. Fortunes will be made.
The only question is “Will you get into the right stocks early when their growth potential is greatest?”
Zacks has released a Special Report to help you do just that, and today it’s free. Discover 7 special companies that look to gain the most from construction and repair to roads, bridges, and buildings, plus cargo hauling and energy transformation on an almost unimaginable scale.
Download FREE: How to Profit from Trillions on Spending for Infrastructure >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.
Click to get this free report