Stocks rose on Monday, extending last week's rally as market participants remained optimistic towards further U.S. economic stimulus and building economic recovery following last week's worse-than-expected jobs report for January. All three major benchmarks rose to fresh closing highs.
On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CBSin an interview that the U.S. could return to full employment levels by 2022 if Congress works swiftly to pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
"We're in a deep hole with respect to the job market and a long way to dig out," Yellen said, "There's absolutely no reason why we should suffer through a long, slow recovery."
Here's how the market settled to start the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.74% or +28.76 points to 3,915.59
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.76% or +237.52 points to 31,385.76
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +0.95% or +131.35 points to 13,987.64
For Stocks, Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) popped nearly 6% after the company announced a new global partnership with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to expand Palantir's sales reach. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares gained over 1% after a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed that the electric carmaker had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and plans to start accepting the cryptocurrency as payments for products.
For Sector Performance, almost every sector on the S&P 500 advanced on Monday, with only Utilities (NYSE: XLU) falling into negative territory. Energy (NYSE: XLE) was the session's top performer, rising over 4%, and Financials (NYSE: XLF) and Information Technology (NYSE: XLK) increasing over 1%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) was flat, ticking slightly lower, on Monday as the currency was pressured by last week's worse-than-expected jobs report but investors continued to bet that the U.S. will recover faster than other global economies. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against other global currencies, edged slightly lower but held relatively flat at 90.982. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices rose on Monday as investors continued to expect another round of U.S. fiscal stimulus, boosting the yellow metal's appeal as an inflation hedge. Spot gold increased 1.2% to $1,831.90 per ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 1.3% higher at $1,836.10 per ounce. Crude oil futures rose higher on Monday, boosted by bets on additional U.S. stimulus and ongoing supply cuts. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) rose 2.06% to $60.56 per barrel, while domestic index West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) settled 1.97% higher at $57.97 each; the benchmarks' highest points since January 2020.
For Tuesday, market participants will turn their attention to data for job openings in December, as well as corporate quarter earnings reports for companies like Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) and Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT).