Wall Street continued Friday's rally due to the better-than-expected May job's report. The S&P 500 rose enough to shake off all of its losses for 2020, turning slightly positive for the year. The Dow Jones surged over 400 points, carried by Boeing's (NYSE: BA) recent winning streak and the Nasdaq settled at a new record high on Monday.
Yet, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) declared the the U.S. economic hit its economic peak in February 2020, marking "the end of the expansion that began in June 2009 and the beginning of a recession." According to the report, the previous expansion lasted 128 months, which was the longest in the history of U.S. business cycles extending back to 1854.
"The committee recognizes that the pandemic and the public health response have resulted in a downturn with different characteristic and dynamics than prior recessions" the NBER panel concluded. "Nonetheless, it concluding that the unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if its turn out to be briefer than earlier contractions."
Here's how the market settled to start the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +1.20% or +38.46 points to 3,232.39
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +1.70% of +461.46 points to 27,572.44
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.13% or +110.66 point sto 9,924.75
In Major Stock News, follow suit with recent trends, "reopening stocks"-- American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL), Booking (NASDAQ: BKNG), Carnival (NYSE: CCL), Delta (NYSE: DAL), Expedia (NASDAQ: EXPE), Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE: NCLH), Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL), Southwest (NYSE: LUV), United (NASDAQ: UAL)--rose on Monday as investors moved with the economic restart rally. Conversely, "stay-at-home stocks" like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Zoom Video (NASDAQ: ZM) lagged behind the broader market as investors shrugged them off. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares hit an all time closing high of $949.92 on Monday after opening at $919 per share. The stock's surge was partly due to electric car sales data in China.
In Stock Sector News, every sector soared during Monday's rally. The performance gains were as follows: Energy +4.32%, Utilities +2.64%, Real Estate +2.15%, Industrials +1.97%, Financials +1.76%, Consumer Discretionary +1.52%, Communication Services +1.12%, Consumer Staples +0.96%, Health Care +0.64%, Information Technology +0.45% and Materials +0.10%.
In Commodity and Currency News, crude oil futures fell on Monday, with West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) declining 3.5% to about $38 per barrel and international benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) slipping 3.1% to just under $41 per barrel. Gold (NYSE: GLD) futures increased during Monday's session, with the yellow metal's price climbing 1.34% to settle around $1,706 per ounce. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) declined on Monday, with the DXY Index slipping -0.24%.
For Tuesday, market participants will focus on economic headlines as well as corporate earnings from companies like Chewy (NYSE: CHWY) and Tiffany (NYSE: TIF).