US stocks ended higher on Monday as increases in large tech and internet companies and oil price gains outweighed concerns sparked by fresh US-China tensions and downbeat sentiment from the annual meeting of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
Major US indexes opened lower but moved higher throughout the afternoon to snap two-day losing streaks.
Stocks have rebounded sharply since late March from the coronavirus-fueled sell-off, helped by massive monetary and fiscal stimulus. Investors are now focused on the impact from a number of states easing restrictions designed to stop the outbreak in order to aid their economies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 26.07 points, or 0.11%, to 23,749.76, the S&P 500 gained 12.03 points, or 0.42%, to 2,842.74 and the Nasdaq Composite added 105.77 points, or 1.23%, to 8,710.72.
Gains in Microsoft, Apple and Amazon were the biggest lifts for the S&P 500, following mixed reaction last week to reports from big tech names.
Energy was the best performing S&P 500 sector, rising 3.7%, as oil prices gained.
Shares of Delta Air Lines Inc, American Airlines Group Inc, Southwest Airlines Co and United Airlines Holdings Inc fell between 5% and 8% and were among the biggest decliners on the S&P 500 after a move by Berkshire Hathaway to dump stakes in major US airlines.
Shares of Berkshire itself fell 2.6% and weighed on the S&P 500 after the conglomerate posted a record quarterly net loss of nearly $50 billion.
Buffett, whose comments are closely followed by investors, acknowledged at Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday that the global pandemic could significantly damage the economy and his investments.
A flare-up in US-China tensions presents another challenge to the market. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday there was "a significant amount of evidence" that the new coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory. An editorial in China's Global Times said he was "bluffing".
Investors are also digesting a difficult corporate results season. With more than half of S&P 500 companies reporting results so far, first-quarter earnings are expected to have fallen 12.5%, according to Refinitiv data.
Shares of Tyson Foods Inc tumbled 7.8% after the company said the coronavirus crisis will continue to idle US meat plants and slow production as it reported lower-than-expected earnings and revenue for the quarter.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.09-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.14-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and three new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 18 new highs and 14 new lows.
About 9.5 billion shares changed hands in US exchanges, below the 12.1 billion-share daily average over the last 20 sessions.
Comments
Comments are closed.