Stocks finished mixed on Monday, with the Dow surging over 250 points, while some big names in the tech sector slipped into the red.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 260.88, or 0.67%), to close at 39,411.21, while S&P 500 slipped 0.31% to end at 5,447.87 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.09% to close out the session at 17,496.82.
AI chip-making giant Nvidia lost 6.7% to end at $118.11. Nvidia briefly surpassed Microsoft as the world's largest company.
The stock has risen more than 155% this year, adding some $2 trillion in value, and has also powered the lion's share of the S&P 500's solid first-half gains.
Updated at 10:50 AM EDT
Dow leap
IBM (IBM) shares are leading the Dow firmly higher, following a Goldman Sachs 'buy' rating initiation, but a broader selection of non-tech stocks are booking solid advances amid a three-day pullback for Nvidia (NVDA) .
Chevron (CVX) , Goldman (GS) , Coca-Cola (KO) and Visa (V) are all marching higher, helping the Dow rise more than 400 points to the highest level since May 23.
DOW HITS ONE-MONTH HIGH, LAST UP 0.8%
— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) June 24, 2024
Updated at 9:48 AM EDT
Softer open
The S&P 500 was marked 5 points lower, or 0.06%, in the opening minutes of trading, with the Nasdaq down 62 points, or 0.34%. Early gains for UnitedHealth (UNH) and JPMorgan (JPM) are boosting the Dow to a 112 point advance.
S&P 500 Opening Bell Heatmap (Jun. 24, 2024)$SPY -0.03%🟥$QQQ -0.38%🟥$DJI +0.22%🟩$IWM +0.31%🟩 pic.twitter.com/DxZb2pwO2m
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) June 24, 2024
Updated at 9:04 AM EDT
Micron march
Micron shares are moving higher again Monday following a pair of price target upgrades for the memory chipmaker ahead of its third quarter earnings later in the week.
Micron, which makes a key memory chip - the HBM and the HBM3 - for AI systems, is expected to post a bottom line of 51 cents a share on revenues of around $6.66 billion.
Micron shares were marked 2% higher in premarket trading to indicate an opening bell price of $142.29 each.
Related: Analysts revisit Micron stock price targets ahead of Q3 earnings
Updated at 8:44 AM EDT
Cooling pressures
Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he is "hopeful" that inflation will return to the central bank's 2% target as he sees "cooling" in the broader economy.
Speaking with CNBC Monday, Goolsbee said more evidence of easing inflation will "open the door" to a Fed rate cut, adding that officials will have to consider the planned rate cuts from major central banks around the world when calibrating policy.
🇺🇸 *CHICAGO #FED PRESIDENT AUSTAN GOOLSBEE SPEAKS ON CNBC - BBG
— Christophe Barraud🛢🐳 (@C_Barraud) June 24, 2024
*GOOLSBEE: HOPEFUL THAT WE'LL GET MORE INFLATION CONFIDENCE
*GOOLSBEE: REAL ECONOMY ISN'T SHOWING TRADITIONAL OVERHEATING
*GOOLSBEE: HAVE TO CONSIDER RESTRICTIVENESS VS OTHER ECONOMIES
Stock Market Today
The S&P 500 has carved out a second-quarter gain of around 4% and is up more than 10% from its mid-April low, largely on the back of outsized gains for megacap tech stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) and renewed bets on a Federal Reserve rate cut tied to easing inflation pressures.
Investors will navigate tests of both of those drivers this week with May quarter earnings from Micron Technology (MU) , a key player in the AI-memory market, due Wednesday, and the release of the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, the PCE Price index, on Friday.
Both the headline and core PCE inflation rates are forecast to ease to around 2.6% for May, which would be the slowest annualized rates since March 2021 and likely cement the market's bets on an autumn Fed rate cut.
At present, the CME Group's FedWatch suggests a 66% chance of a quarter-point reduction in September, with similar odds for a follow-on move before the end of the year.
In the bond market, benchmark Treasury bond yields were steady ahead of a week of $183 billion in coupon auctions over the next five days. Yields nudged higher last week following PMI data from S&P Global showing June business activity jumped to the fastest pace in more than two years.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were last seen trading at 4.255%, with 2-year notes pegged at 4.734% ahead of tomorrow's $69 billion auction.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six global currencies, was marked 0.22% lower at 105.566.
Heading into the start of the trading day on Wall Street, futures tied to the S&P 500, which has risen in eight of the past nine weeks, were priced for a 4 point gain.
Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, suggest a 93 point advance while those linked to the tech-focused Nasdaq suggest a 16 point decline.
Stocks on the move include Boeing (BA) , which fell 0.63% in premarket trading amid reports that U.S. prosecutors are recommending that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against the planemaker tied to fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019.
In overseas markets, Europe's Stoxx 600 edged 0.39% higher in Frankfurt with investors focused on parliamentary elections in France later in the week, while Britain's FTSE 100 edged 0.39% higher in early London trading.
More Wall Street Analysts:
- Analyst updates Oracle stock price target after earnings
- Analyst reboots Trade Desk stock price target after Netflix deal
- Analysts adjust Micron stock price target ahead of earnings
Overnight in Asia, currency traders were on intervention watch as the yen slipped closer to the 160 mark against the U.S. dollar, a weakening that could trigger massive yen buying from the Bank of Japan.
The Nikkei 225 ended 0.54% higher in Tokyo, with export stocks leading the advance, while the regional MSCI ex-Japan benchmark slipped 0.49% into the close of trading.
Related: Single Best Trade: Wall Street veteran picks Palantir stock