[ad_1]
Stocks rose solidly on Wall Street in Monday afternoon trading, prompting the S&P 500 to recoup last week’s losses and eclipse its all-time high.
The benchmark index rose 1% as of 14:40 in the East, enough to offset its first weekly loss since July. Technology, communications and financial stocks supported most of the S&P 500’s gains. Companies that rely on consumer spending have also helped boost the market. Energy shares posted the biggest gain, as US crude rose 5.3%, regaining some of the ground it lost last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 1.7%, bringing the tech-heavy index a striking distance from a record high.
Small company stocks were outpacing the broader market. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8 percent.
Pfizer rose 2.5% after the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been under emergency use authorization since December, but full approval may convince some reluctant Americans to get vaccinated now, possibly giving local authorities legal backing to impose powers.
German pharmaceutical manufacturer BioNTech, which developed the vaccine with Pfizer, jumped 9% on the news. Moderna, which developed a similar vaccine using the same technology, gained 6.9%.
The market is experiencing a summer recession, and the end of August is historically one of the slowest times for trading, outside of the Christmas holiday season. Markets are expected to recover in volume and volatility after the Labor Day weekend.
Investors will be looking to the Federal Reserve as the Kansas City Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, kicks off this week. It will probably give Wall Street more insight into what the Fed can do about inflation.
Minutes from the most recent Fed meeting last week showed policymakers discussing reducing the central bank’s bond-buying program this year to begin ending some of the emergency measures implemented during the pandemic. They stopped setting a precise timeline.
In economic news, sales of previously used homes rose more than 5.82 million economists expected, with a faster-than-expected increase of 5.99 million from June to July. Still, sales showed a more modest annual gain compared to last quarters, up only 1.5% from last year’s July. Home builders fell broadly after the report. Miami-based Lennar fell 1.1 percent.
Thank you for being a Washington Times reader. Comments are temporarily disabled. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
[ad_2]
Source link