U.S. markets ended sharply higher on Monday after stocks rallied on hopes of a swifter economic recovery on COVID-19 optimism and bond markets somewhat cooled down after last week’s selloff. Also, economic data show robust growth in manufacturing activity early in the year, which lifted investors’ sentiment. All the three major indexes ended in positive territory
How Did The Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) gained 2% or 603.14 points to close at 31,535.51, recording its best single day gains since Nov 9. The rally was driven by a solid 5.8% jump in The Boeing Company’s
BA
stock.
The S&P 500 jumped 2.4% or 90.67 points to close at 3,901.82 points. This was the index’s best day since June 5. The tech and energy stocks were the best performers.
The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK) gained 3.2%, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE) advanced 2.6%. All the 11 sectors of the benchmark index closed in the green.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 3% or 396.48 points to finish at 13,588.83 points, registering its best daily gains since Nov 4. Shares of Apple, Inc.
AAPL
jumped 5.4%, while Alphabet, Inc.
GOOGL
gained 2.4%. Apple has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
The fear-gauge CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) was down 16.46% to 23.35. A total of 12.1 billion shares were traded on Monday, lower than the last 20-session average of 15.1 billion. Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a 3.82-to-1 ratio. On Nasdaq, a 4.29-to-1 ratio favored advancing issues.
Bond Markets Normalize
Markets bounced back on Monday to start the month on a high after choppy trading on fears of rising rates saw a massive selloff last week. On Monday, the 10-year Treasury note yield declined to a session low of 1.41%, thus showing signs of normalizing, which gave investors’ confidence a boost. This helped investors once again shift focus to the brightening prospects of a faster economy recovery, thus sending stocks on a rally.
Also, the vaccination drive has gathered steam couple with a decline in new coronavirus cases and deaths, which further lifted investors’ sentiments.
Economic Data
Strong economic data at the beginning of the year showed that the economy is fast getting back to its feet. On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management reported that manufacturing index jumped to 60.8% in February from 58.7% in the earlier month, indicating that manufacturing activity has been gathering steam as more people start receiving vaccine doses.
In a separate report, the Commerce Department said on Monday that U.S. construction spending rose 1.7% in January to $1.521 trillion, the highest level since the government began tracking the series in 2002.
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