Riding high on tech stocks, the American stock exchange, Nasdaq on Monday jumped to an all-time high. The tech stocks at New York Stock Exchange are reported to have swelled amid fears over the third Covid-19 wave hitting across Asia soon.
Among the top gainers, stay-at-home winners including Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Nvidia Corp gave the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. In contrast, reopening sectors dropped sharply – financials, energy and airlines fell between 1.2% and 3.5%. All major S&P sectors fell, except technology and utilities which gained 1.1% and 0.8%.
The S&P 500 on Friday logged its best weekly performance in 20 following a bipartisan agreement on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending deal and waning concerns about a sooner-than-expected policy tightening from the Federal Reserve.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had hit a series of record highs last week. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq's 5% gain is outpacing its peers in June as investors pile back into tech-oriented growth stocks on waning worries about runaway inflation.
Meanwhile, with the S&P 500 up almost 14% as the first half of 2021 draws to a close, activity in some areas of the market indicates concern over potential volatility, with some investors suggesting the market may be overdue for a significant pullback.
On the economic front, attention will be on consumer confidence data, a private jobs report and a crucial monthly employment report. Quarterly results from Micron Technology and Walgreens are also slated for this week.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.8-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.1-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 183 new highs and 22 new lows.
