U.S. Stocks Pull Back Off Early Highs But Close Mostly Positive

After showing a strong move to the upside early in the session, stocks gave back ground over the course of the trading day on Monday but managed to end the day mostly higher. The major averages all finished the day in positive territory after turning in mixed performances over the two previous sessions.

The Dow advanced 273.17 points or 0.7 percent to 42,387.57, the Nasdaq climbed 48.58 points or 0.3 percent to 18,567.19 and the S&P 500 rose 15.40 points or 0.3 percent to 5,821.52.

The strength on Wall Street comes amid a steep drop by the price of oil. Oil prices plunged after Israel’s retaliatory attack against Iran over the weekend did not damage the Islamic republic’s energy facilities.

Meanwhile, traders were also looking ahead to the release of key U.S. economic data later in the week.

The monthly jobs report as well as a report on personal income and spending that includes the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation readings are likely to be in the spotlight.

Reports on third quarter GDP, consumer confidence, pending home sales and manufacturing sector activity may also attract some attention.

The data could impact the outlook for the economy as well as expectations regarding how quickly the Fed will lower interest rates.

Earnings news is also likely to be in focus in the coming days, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Intel (INTC), McDonald’s (MCD), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Pfizer (PFE) among the companies due to report their quarterly results.

Sector News

Airline stocks saw substantial strength on the day, with the NYSE Arca Airline Index soaring by 3.0 percent to its best closing level in over a year.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) posted a standout gain after filing a lawsuit against CrowdStrike (CRWD) over the July outage that led to thousands of flight cancellations.

Significant was also visible among steel stocks, as reflected by the 3.0 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Steel Index.

Financial, computer hardware and biotechnology stocks also saw considerable strength, while energy stocks moved to the downside along with the price of crude oil.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index surged by 1.8 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed by 0.7 percent.

The major European markets also moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index rose by 0.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries extended the pullback seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 4.6 basis points to a three-month closing high of 4.278 percent.

Looking Ahead

Trading on Tuesday may be impacted by reaction to the latest U.S. economic data, including reports on consumer confidence and job openings.