Monday's Stock Market Close: S&P Hits Record And Nasdaq Isn't Far Behind On Earnings, Hope For Rate Cut

The S&P 500 closed at a record 3,039 Monday, buoyed by corporate earnings and hopes for an interest rate cut and deal to end the U.S.-China trade war.

The S&P gained nearly 17 points on the day and gave oomph to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite, as well. The Dow added 132 points for the day to close at 27,090 while the Nasdaq soared 82 points to 8,325, just 5 points shy of its record.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 2.9 billion shares with 1,610 issues advancing, 153 setting new highs, and 1,353 declining, with 22 setting new lows.

PG&E Corp. (PCG), Nokia Corp. ADR (NOK) and Xunlei Ltd ADR (XNET) led the most actives.

On the earnings front, nearly 150 companies in the S&P 500 were scheduled to release results this week, including General Motors, Facebook and Apple.

AT&T (T) kicked off the festivities, beating estimates, by reporting earnings of 94 cents a share, compared to 90 cents in the year ago quarter. Earnings were up 1.08% over last year.

HSBC (HSBC), Europe’s largest lender, announced it would overhaul its system after third-quarter profits missed estimates. The bank warned of significant future write-offs as it reported pre-tax profits were 18% below last year’s quarter at $4.8 billion on revenue of $13.36 billion, 3% below last year

“Our previous plans are no longer sufficient to improve performance for these businesses, given the softer outlook for revenue growth. We are therefore accelerating plans to remodel them, and move capital into higher growth and return opportunities,” interim CEO Noel Quinn said.

Expectations were high the U.S. Federal Reserve would lower interest rates when its rate-setting panel meets Tuesday and Wednesday despite divisions on the Federal Open Markets Committee.

The Brexit drama dragged on in Britain as Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost his third bid to call elections. The vote was 299-70 against balloting Dec. 12. Labour said it won’t agree to any polls until a no-deal Brexit is taken off the table.

Meanwhile, the European Union granted a three-month extension for Britain’s divorce deal from the economic alliance with officials insisting this would be the last time the deadline would be extended.

Global markets were higher.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed up 0.84% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% and China’s Shanghai Composite added 0.85%. Australia’s S&P/ASX inched up 0.02%.

London’s FTSE closed up 0.19%, the German DAX gained 0.52% and the French CAC added 0.36%. The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.41%.

The British pound was up 0.27% at $1.2859 while the euro was 0.19% higher at $1.11. The dollar index was off 0.09%.

Oil futures futures were mixed. Crude was off 1.48% to $55.82 a barrel while Brent crude was up 0.07% to $61.29. Gold futures lost 0.66% to $1,495.40 an ounce while silver futures were off 0.37% t5o $16.86 an ounce.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note lost 4/32, pushing its yield to 1.844%. The 30-year note lost 31/32, pushing its rate to 2.333%.