Monday's Stock Market Close: US Equities Rise As Tech Shares Boost Nasdaq, S&P

U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday rebounding from earlier lows as strength in some tech stocks, including Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX), pushed up the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edge up 26.07 points to 23,749.76, while the S&P 500 rose 12.03 points to 2,842.74 and the Nasdaq Composite Index gained 105.77 points to 8,710.71.

Volume on the New York Stock Exchange totaled 3.98 billion shares with 1,280 issues advancing, five setting new highs, and 1,668 declining, with 10 setting new lows.

Active movers were led by General Electric (GE), American Airlines (AAL) and Delta Airlines (DAL).

Some states in the U.S. are gradually allowing some nonessential businesses to reopen, although there is much opposition to these measures.

Early Monday, traders fretted over renewed tensions between the U.S. and China over coronavirus.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there is a “enormous evidence” connecting the coronavirus to a lab in Wuhan, China. A Chinese Communist-controlled paper called the accusations groundless.

Last week, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said China would be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump said that while he was confident a vaccine for the virus will be found by the end of the year, he warned some 100,000 Americans may die from the disease.

More than 3.5 million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed around the world, including over 1.1 million in the U.S. alone.

“The next two to four weeks are critical for both the economic crisis and the health crisis,” said Marc Chaikin, CEO of Chaikin Analytics. “The biggest risk to the stock market is a premature reopening of the U.S. economy. If rising Covid-19 curves reemerge and economies are shut down again, the damage to the stock market’s psyche will be dramatic.”

Airline stocks incurred losses on Monday after super-investor Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) said his conglomerate sold all of its $4 billion in airline holdings due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“Buffett is a long-term investor, so his decision to sell reflects his belief that airline industry is facing future challenges that fundamentally change the value-capture of that business,” wrote Tom Lee of Fundstrat.

Factory orders plunged by 10.3% in March.

“We expect stocks to remain volatile as markets struggle to find a balance between announcements on the lifting of lockdowns, data on potential treatments and vaccines, economic releases, news on the course of the pandemic, and changing political dynamics,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Overnight in Asia, China’s Shanghai Composite and Japan’s Nikkei-225 were both closed for holidays, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 4.18%.

In Europe markets finished lower, Britain’s FTSE-100 slipped 0.16%, while France’s CAC-40 dropped 4.24% and Germany’s DAX plunged 3.64%.

Crude oil futures jumped 5.97% at $20.96 per barrel, Brent crude rose 2.06% at $27.76. Gold futures rose 0.62%.

The euro slipped 0.76% at $1.0897 while the pound sterling fell 0.41% at $1.2442.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped 0.78% to 0.637% while yield on the 30-year Treasury gained 1.49% to 1.297%.