U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday in a choppy trading session that saw mega-cap growth stocks rebounding slightly from a losing week while investors continued to worry about interest rate hikes and soaring inflation. All the major indexes ended in positive territory.
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose less than 0.1% or 16.08 points to end at 32,915.78 points. The blue-chip index was up more than 300 points during its session highs but most of the gains were erased by the end of the day.
The S&P 500 gained 0.3% or 12.89 points to close at 4,121.43 points. Consumer discretionary and materials stocks were the best performers.
The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) and the Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB) each gained 1%. Nine of the 11 sectors of the benchmark index ended in positive territory.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.4% or 48.64 points to finish at 12,061.37 points. The index at one point was 2% higher but gave up most of its gains.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was up 1.13% to 25.07. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 1.29-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 1.01-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues. A total of 10.64 billion shares were traded on Monday, lower than the last 20-session average of 12.75 billion.
Steeper Rate Hike Prospects, Soaring Inflation Worry Investors
Markets finished last week in the red as investors worried that the Fed wouldn’t relax its tough monetary policy after government data showed better-than-expected job gains in May. However, investors came back afresh on Monday that saw stocks rallying. All the three major indexes at one point were more than 2% higher.
Rate hike worries and growing concern over soaring inflation have been making investors jittery. The 10-year Treasury yield rose 8.2 basis points pushing it past the 3% mark on Monday. This is the highest yield since May 9.
However, some relief came in the form of positive news from China as it eased some of its COVID-related restrictions. This somewhat lifted investors’ sentiments. This saw overseas stocks gaining. Shares of JD.com, Inc.
JD
jumped 6.5%.
Also, mega-cap growth stocks tried to make a comeback, which helped the major indexes finish the session in the green. Shares of Amazon.com, Inc
AMZN
gained 2% after the online retailer split its shares 20 for 1. Also, shares of Apple, Inc.
AAPL
and Meta Platforms, Inc.
FB
gained 0.5% and 1.8%, respectively. Apple has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
No economic data was released on Monday.
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