Wall St closes higher as investors return to megacap stocks
Send a link to a friend
[July 23, 2024] By
David French
(Reuters) -Wall Street's three benchmarks ended higher on Monday as
investors returned to megacap growth stocks, helping both the S&P 500
and Nasdaq Composite recover from their worst weekly performance since
April.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also back in positive territory,
breaking a two-session skid since hitting an all-time closing high last
Wednesday.
Megacaps Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Tesla all advanced between 2.2%
and 5.1% after being major drags on the market last week.
Nvidia also rose 4.8% after Reuters reported the artificial intelligence
chip leader was working on a version of its new flagship AI chips for
the China market that would be compliant with current U.S. export
controls.
The Information Technology index climbed 2%, topping sectoral gainers
and snapping a four-day losing streak.
"We think this move today probably has more to do with a rebound from
the selling that occurred last week than anything else," said Jason
Pride, chief of investment strategy & research at Glenmede.
Chief among the other factors on traders' minds was a reexamination of
the state of the presidential race after U.S. President Joe Biden
announced his withdrawal and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris'
candidacy for the November election on Sunday.
Biden's exit could prompt investors to unwind trades on bets that a
victory for Republican Trump would increase U.S. fiscal and inflationary
pressures. But some analysts said markets could benefit from an
increased chance of a divided government under the next administration.
Online betting site PredictIt showed pricing for a Donald Trump victory
slipped 4 cents to 60 cents, while climbing 12 cents for a Harris win to
39 cents.
Trump-linked stocks were mixed on Monday, with Trump Media & Technology
Group dropping 0.8%, while software firm Phunware gained 4%.
Having digested the news of Biden's withdrawal, investors will now be
looking for answers to key questions including who will join Harris on
the Democratic presidential ticket and to what degree, if any, the vice
president will deviate from the platform which Biden was headlining.
This element of uncertainty is present alongside traders' angst over
quarterly earnings, including from two of the so-called Magnificent
Seven companies - Alphabet and Tesla - on deck this week.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/072324PIX/busine62.jpg)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in
New York City, U.S., June 12, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File
Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jul/23/images/ads/current/fcs_funeral_lda_border_04029022.png)
The results will test whether the recent rally in top-tier
high-momentum stocks is tenable and if a move to underperforming
sectors will continue.
"We're seeing the market begin to price in a little bit a faster set
of rate cuts, and that is leading to a bit of a shift in leadership
to favor smaller-cap stocks and to deviate from the focus on the
largest tech companies," said Glenmede's Pride.
"Obviously today looks a little bit different to that, but it's
still a trend in the background."
The S&P 500 gained 59.41 points, or 1.08%, at 5,564.41 points, while
the Nasdaq Composite climbed 280.63 points, or 1.58%, to 18,007.57.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 127.91 points, or 0.32%, to
40,415.44.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike slumped 13.5%, extending losses after
a software update from the company sparked Friday's global tech
outage.
Delta Air Lines dropped 3.5% after canceling over 600 flights as it
struggled to restore operations after the outage.
Verizon Communications fell 6.1% after a second-quarter revenue
miss.
Mattel Inc jumped 15.1% after Reuters reported the toy maker had
been approached by buyout firm L Catterton with an acquisition
offer.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.95 billion shares, compared with the
11.37 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading
days.
(Reporting by Shubham Batra, Ankika Biswas and Lisa Mattackal in
Bengaluru, and David French in New York; Editing by Sherry
Jacob-Phillips, Pooja Desai and Richard Chang)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jul/23/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png) |