NEW YORK: he Nasdaq index hit a record high on Monday as investors remained optimistic at the start of a busy week of earnings from mega-cap technology companies, while economy-sensitive cyclical stocks gave back recent gains.
The so-called “stay-at-home” winners including Microsoft Corp, Facebook Inc and Apple Inc rose between 1.7% and 4.3%, following upbeat results from Netflix Inc last week.
Microsoft, scheduled to report results on Tuesday, rose 0.7% as Wedbush raised its price target on the software maker’s stock on expectations of further growth in its cloud business for 2021.
“All eyes are on tech as it now has a chance to regain some of the strength that it lost in recent months,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital in New York.
The S&P 500 technology sector rose 1.1%, while Tesla Inc added 6.1% ahead of its quarterly results on Wednesday.
Earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise 23.7% this year after falling 14.1% in 2020, according to Refinitiv.
Investors were hopeful that officials in President Joe Biden’s administration could head off Republican concerns that his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief proposal was too expensive, even as lawmakers from both parties agreed that getting the COVID-19 vaccine to Americans should be a priority.
Wall Street’s main indexes touched record highs last week on hopes of a full economic reopening and efficient distribution of vaccines across the country, which is suffering from more than 175,000 new COVID-19 cases a day with millions out of work.
However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index and the S&P 500 struggled to keep up with the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s rally, as recent gainers including sectors such as financials, energy, industrials and materials all took a beating on Monday.
At 10:00 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 172.22 points, or 0.55%, to 30,824.76, the S&P 500 gained 10.10 points, or 0.26%, to 3,851.52, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 169.61 points, or 1.25%, to 13,712.89.
Merck & Co Inc fell 0.8% after the drugmaker said it would stop development of its two COVID-19 vaccines citing inferior immune responses.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc added 1.3% after RBC raised its price target on the chipmaker’s shares.
Videogame retailer GameStop Corp surged 52.2%, after having already gained about 250% since the beginning of 2021. Traders noted that the jump in shares could be short-sellers quickly buying back into the stock to cover potential losses and retail investors piling in to benefit from the surge.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.3-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and matched them on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 19 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 356 new highs and six new lows.