Major Averages Close Firmly Positive After Seeing Early Weakness

After coming under pressure early in the session, stocks showed a substantial turnaround over the course of the trading day on Monday. The major averages bounced well off their early lows and ended the day significantly higher.

The major averages saw further upside going into the close, ending the session near their best levels of the day. The Dow climbed 238.06 points or 0.7 percent to 34,04946, the Nasdaq jumped 165.60 points or 1.3 percent to 13,004.85 and the S&P 500 rose 24.34 points or 0.6 percent to 4,296.12.

The Nasdaq benefited from a surge by shares of Twitter (TWTR), which shot up by 5.7 percent after the social media giant accepted billionaire Elon Musk’s buyout deal valued at about $44 billion.

The early weakness on Wall Street reflected lingering concerns about the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting next week.

Trading activity remained somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data likely to keep some traders on the sidelines.

Reports on durable goods orders, consumer confidence, new home sales, first quarter GDP and personal income and spending are likely to attract attention in the coming days.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of the release of earnings news from a number of big-name companies.

Apple (AAPL), General Electric (GE), Alphabet (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Boeing (BA), McDonald’s (MCD), Twitter (TWTR), Amazon (AMZN), Intel (INTC) and Exxon Mobil (XOM) are just a few of the companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

Sector News

Housing stocks moved sharply higher over the course of the trading session, driving the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index up by 2.3 percent.

Significant strength also emerged among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Networking, pharmaceutical and computer hardware stocks also turned in strong performances on the day, while energy stocks moved sharply lower along with the price of crude oil.

With crude for June delivery plunging $3.53 to $98.54 a barrel, the Philadelphia Oil Service Index plunged by 5.4 percent and the NYSE Arca Oil Index tumbled by 3.2 percent.

Gold, steel and natural gas stocks also saw considerable weakness on the day.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved sharply lower during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 1.9 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index plummeted by 5.1 percent.

The major European markets also showed significant moves to the downside on the day. While the German DAX Index slumped by 1.5 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index plunged by 1.9 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries pulled back off their best levels of the session but still closed in positive territory. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, fell by 8 basis points to 2.826 percent after hitting a low of 2.760 percent.

Looking Ahead

Earnings news is likely to be in the spotlight on Tuesday, while traders should also keep an eye on reports on durable goods orders, consumer confidence and new home sales.

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