Big tech lifts stocks as reflation trade wanes
Some of the worlds largest technology companies led stocks to a fresh record on Monday, extending a rally thats already added $6 trillion in value to the equity market this year.
After swinging between gains and losses throughout most of the session, the S&P 500 moved higher on news that Facebook Inc. won dismissal of two monopoly lawsuits. Some of the stay-at-home darlings like Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Zoom Video Communications Inc. climbed as last week's reflation trade waned. Cruise operators and airlines sank as governments from Europe to Asia imposed new limits on travel from Britain -- which is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases.
With stocks on track for one of their best first halves in history, the debate over elevated valuations is coming back to the forefront. The S&P 500 is trading above the average of the past decade and this quarter potentially marking the peak of a profit recovery from the depths of the pandemic. Meantime, demand for protection against losses in coming months has risen in the options market.
"Investors should not be looking for stocks to move higher in a straight line, but rather prepare for the economic recovery taking shape," John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, wrote to clients. "We look for progress, not perfection in the economic data this week, with the potential for any disappointments to give rise to volatility, and with results that are better than expected likely to provide positive offsets."
Traders awaited a batch of economic reports due this week, with one of the highlights being the jobs reading on Friday, which is forecast to show an acceleration in payrolls growth in June.
These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4 p.m. EDT
- The Nasdaq 100 rose 1.3%
- The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.4%
- The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%
- The euro was little changed at $1.1925
- The British pound was little changed at $1.3874
- The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 110.61 per dollar
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined four basis points to 1.48%
- Germany's 10-year yield declined four basis points to -0.19%
- Britain's 10-year yield declined six basis points to 0.72%
Commodities
- West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $72.88 a barrel
- Gold futures were little changed
