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JUNE 4, 2018 / 5:50 pm
Tech rally helps Wall Street push higher, Nasdaq has record
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DJ: 24,813.69 +178.48 NAS: 7,606.46 +52.13 S&P: 2,746.87
+12.25 6/4
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall
Street’s three major indexes rose on Monday, led by a rally in tech stocks,
pushing the Nasdaq to a record closing high as investors bet on a continuation
of strong economic growth, while falling oil prices weighed on the energy
sector. Apple (AAPL.O) shares rose to their highest ever due
to investor bets on its annual developers conference and Microsoft (MSFT.O) impressed with an acquisition,
pushing the S&P 500 technology index .SPLRCT to a record high, while
Amazon.com (AMZN.O) led consumer stocks higher.
Better-than-expected U.S.
jobs data for May was still key to investor optimism as traders turned their
focus away from recent trade war fears. “There’s
momentum from Friday’s job report that’s spilled into Monday’s trading and helped propel
stocks higher,” said
Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York.
However, while impressed “to see a jobs report so strong late in
an economic expansion,” Hooper worried about the U.S. government’s announcement last week of steel and
aluminum tariffs for Europe, Canada and Mexico, which ended a two-month
exemption. “The jobs report is looking
in the rear-view mirror while the protectionist actions last week will impact the future,” she
said. “Investors may be caught off guard if there is a negative impact to
economic growth this year from protectionism.”
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 178.48 points, or 0.72 percent, to
24,813.69, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 12.25 points, or 0.45 percent, to
2,746.87. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 52.13 points, or 0.69 percent, to
reach 7,606.46, a record closing high. The S&P 500’s
technology sector was the benchmark index’s biggest boost with a 0.8 percent
gain.
Apple unveiled its latest operating system iOS 12 at the conference and after
paring some gains in the afternoon, it closed up 0.8 percent. Along with the jobs report, Kim Forrest,
senior portfolio manager at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, also cited
Apple’s developer conference and Microsoft’s $7.5 billion deal to buy privately
held coding website GitHub Inc as key drivers on Monday.
The consumer
discretionary index .SPLRCD was the biggest percentage gainer of the S&P’s 11 sectors, with a 1.1
percent rise, while the energy sector .SPNY was its biggest loser with a 0.9
percent drop as oil prices fell on worries about growing U.S. production. [O/R] As well as the jobs report, Invesco’s Hooper
said falling oil prices
were helping sentiment around the consumer sector.
The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index .NBI underperformed the broader
market with a 0.7 percent decline as shares of cancer-focused companies moved
after presentations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s meeting. Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR.O) tumbled 41.8 percent and weighed on
the index after mixed results from its experimental cancer drug with
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMY.N) Opdivo disappointed investors. Bristol-Myers Squibb ended 3.2 percent lower.
Merck (MRK.N), however, gained about 2.4 percent
after latest data showed its cancer drug Keytruda improved survival as a
stand-alone treatment for a type of lung cancer.
Boeing (BA.N) rose 1.1 percent, the biggest boost to
the Dow, after the planemaker said it would partner with French aerospace firm
Safran SA (SAF.PA) to make and service aircraft parts.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.83-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.35-to-1 ratio favored advancers. The S&P 500 posted 46 new 52-week highs
and five new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 228 new highs and 44 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges
was 6.5 billion shares,
compared with the 6.6 billion average for the last 20 sessions.
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