S&P 500, Nasdaq Climb As Growth Stocks, Twitter Jump

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rose on Monday, boosted by megacap stocks and a 20% jump in Twitter's shares after Elon Musk revealed a sizeable stake in the company, even as the global mood remained cautious amid talks of more sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Micro-blogging site Twitter Inc surged 28.3% to become the biggest percentage gainer on the S&P 500 after Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk reported a 9.2% stake in the company, making him its largest shareholder.

Tesla rose 4.4% to lead gains among megacap companies after the electric-vehicle maker reported record deliveries for the first quarter.

Eight of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors declined, while a jump of more than 1.5% in technology, consumer discretionary and communication services stocks helped offset losses.

After a rough start to the year, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has nearly halved its year-to-date losses in the last few weeks, helped by gains in growth names and strong economic data. Nasdaq is now down 9.8% from its all-time closing high in November.

"Technology stocks were the most oversold to start the year off," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

"The fact that we've been able to claw back half of the losses is testament to the fact that initially we probably did too much selling."

Global stocks stalled as investors kept an eye on the Ukraine conflict and for signals from the U.S. Federal Reserve on its monetary policy tightening plans.

A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve, the gap between 2- and 10-year bond yields remained inverted, as a strong jobs report last week supported the view that the Fed would aggressively hike rates. An inverted yield curve is widely seen as a signal of incoming economic recession. [US/]

Meanwhile, Germany said the West would agree to impose more sanctions on Russia in the coming days after Ukraine accused Russian forces of war crimes following civilian deaths near Kyiv.

At 12:43 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 5.47 points, or 0.02%, at 34,812.80, the S&P 500 was up 21.35 points, or 0.47%, at 4,567.21, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 222.32 points, or 1.56%, at 14,483.82.

U.S.-listed shares of Bilibili Inc and Pinduoduo Inc jumped 17.3% and 14.6%, respectively, after China proposed revising confidentiality rules involving offshore listings.

Starbucks Corp fell 4.6% after former CEO Howard Schultz announced the suspension of the company's stock repurchasing program.

Data showed new orders for U.S.-made goods fell in February, likely because of persistent shortages of materials and a shift in spending back to services, but manufacturing remains supported by low inventories at businesses.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.03-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and three new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 44 new highs and 50 new lows.