(MarketWatch) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index swept to record closes on Monday, driven by optimistic investors during the first day of trading in 2022, while joining the Nasdaq Composite in posting the biggest gains in a week. Among stocks on the move, shares of Tesla surged after record-breaking quarterly sales.
- The Dow closed higher +246.76 or +0.68%
- The S&P 500 finished up +30.38 or +0.64%
- The Nasdaq finished higher +187.83 or +1.20%
Stocks finished higher after a bumpy start to the session amid a number of lingering concerns — including the surge in COVID-19 cases spurred by the rapid spread of the omicron coronavirus variant and the likelihood of multiple interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, expected later this year.
Financial markets were reflecting “broad optimism that the economy can weather omicron, as well as rate hikes from the Fed,” said Tom Garretson, senior portfolio strategist at RBC Wealth Management, citing the resteepening of the Treasury yield curve to levels last seen around November.
The Nasdaq Composite Index led the way Monday among stock benchmarks as “most investors take a more optimistic view on large-cap tech companies being potentially able to adapt to pandemic conditions,” said Timothy Chubb, chief investment officer at Girard, a wealth advisory firm in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Spending on construction projects rose 0.4% in November at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.63 trillion, the Commerce Department reported Monday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected a 0.7% increase. Spending in October was raised to a 0.4% gain from the prior estimate of a 0.2% rise.
- Shares of Tesla Inc. closed 13.5% higher, after the electric-vehicle maker delivered more than 308,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, blowing away analysts’ expectations. Deliveries surged about 87% in 2021.
- Shares of Apple Inc. briefly crossed the threshold required for the company to achieve a $3 trillion market value Monday, but dropped and missed the mark. The shares fell short of the $182.86 closing level needed to reach the threshold. Apple shares rose 2.5% to close at $182.01.
- U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech SE finished 10% lower and those for Pfizer Inc. closed down by 4.1% even after American health regulators cleared the use of a COVID-19 booster from those companies in teens as young as 12 years old.
- U.S.-listed shares of Nio Inc. finished 5.7% higher after the China-based electric vehicle maker announced record fourth-quarter deliveries.
- Oil futures rebounded, with West Texas Intermediate crude for February delivery climbing 87 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $76.08 per barrel.
- Gold futures for February delivery settled at $1,800.10 per ounce, down $28.50 or 1.6%, after 2021 marked the sharpest annual fall since 2015.
- Bitcoin was down 2.5%.
Original Article By: Vivien Lou Chen
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