Dow hits record high as Wall Street rises
(Reuters) – Wall Street climbed on Monday, with the Dow hitting an intra-day record high, as investors awaited cues from the Federal Reserve this week amid caution over rising borrowing costs spurred by massive fiscal stimulus.
The S&P 500 was on track to close at its highest level ever, lifted by a 1.85 rise in Apple.
Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways said leisure bookings are rising and offered some of the first concrete signs that the worst may be over for the airline industry.
The S&P 1500 airlines index jumped over 3% to a one-year high, while other travel-related stocks, including Carnival Corp, Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts gained between 2% and 5%.
Most of the 11 major S&P sector indexes rose, led by utilities and real estate, both up over 1%.
The major stock indexes on Friday logged their best week in six after approval of a $1.9 trillion aid bill and mass vaccinations accelerated demand for stocks expected to outperform as the economy reopens, such as banks, energy, materials companies.
The Russell growth index rose 0.4%, slightly outperforming the Russell value index’s 0.1% rise in a modest reversal of investors’ recent trend away from technology and other high-growth stocks.
“With the vaccine positive news and the stimulus, we think there will continue to be a fair amount of rotation out of the stay-at-home stocks,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments. “We are bullish on financial services and energy coming out of the pandemic.”
At the end of Fed’s two-day meeting on Wednesday, policymakers are expected to forecast that the U.S. economy will grow in 2021 at its fastest rate in decades while reiterating their dovish stance for the foreseeable future.
The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries ticked lower to 1.60%, below its 13-month peak of 1.64% on Friday. Wall Street has been roiled in recent weeks by a spike in longer-dated U.S. bond yields due to fears of an increase in inflation.
In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.22% at 32,850.6 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.20% to 3,951.4.
The Nasdaq Composite added 0.47% to 13,382.43.
Tesla rose 1.7% after the company added “Technoking of Tesla” to Chief Executive Elon Musk’s list of official titles in a formal regulatory filing.
Eli Lilly and Co shares slumped 9% after a mid-stage trial testing its experimental Alzheimer’s drug led to “mixed” results, reducing the chances for the drug’s accelerated approval, according to analysts.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.44-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.16-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 79 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 246 new highs and 10 new lows.
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