Dow down 0.21%, Nasdaq up 0.18%, Nasdaq up 0.62% Adds analyst comment, updates prices to late afternoon Oct 18 Reuters - The S&P and Nasdaq gained on Monday with a helping hand from heavyweight technology companies as investors looked optimistic about the third-quarter earnings season.
While stocks were under pressure during early trading due to concerns about slowing economic growth in China and inflation, particularly in oil prices, the S&P had turned firmly positive in the early morning.
Five of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were generally the highest, led by consumer discretionary and technology, and communications services.
In technology, Apple Inc was up 0.6% as investors digested the company's unveiling of new Mac laptop computers with more powerful processor chips.
With only a small minority of companies reporting quarterly results as far as investors had looked at some good news ahead and were hopeful for places to invest their cash, according to John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio.
It feels like a little bit of FOMO fear of missing out is going on, mixed with this wall of cash at the sidelines, said Augustine, noting that active managers turned to stocks to position themselves for the fourth quarter and that individuals are realizing that they're not going to get a return for bonds or cash this year. On 28 December EDT, Dow Jones Industrial Average was down to 35,222 points, or 0.21%, to 72.44 points. 32, the S&P 500 gain 8.23 points, or 0.18%, to 4,479. 6 and the Nasdaq Composite added 92.84 points or 0.62% to 14,990. Sentiment was damper earlier in the day after China recorded its slowest economic growth in a year for the third quarter of the fourth quarter, hurt by power shortages and wobbles in the property sector.
Investors were encouraged by what they saw in U.S. earnings reports so far while keeping a focus on how companies mitigate the impact of supply disruptions, labor shortages and higher costs on earnings.
There is some weak data out of China, which is concerned on a global basis, and then market participants came into this earnings with a very positive view but banks dramatically exceeded expectations, said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital Llc in New York.
Refinitiv data forecast-beating results from big U.S. lenders last week set a positive tone for the third quarter earnings season, with analysts anticipating S&P 500 earnings to show a 32% rise from a year ago.
Among the best stocks of the S&P 500 for the session so far was Tesla Inc., up 3.5% ahead of their earnings report this week. Other major tech companies growth included Microsoft Corp., up 3.9% and Facebook Inc, up 0.8%, in addition to Apple's gains.
Johnson Johnson, Netflix Inc., Verizon Communications Inc and oilfield services company Baker Hughes Co are also due to report quarterly results this week.
Barclays fell 3% after Walt Disney Co downgraded the media giant's stock to equal weight from overweight. Downsizing issues outnumbered decliners in the Nasdaq by a ratio of 1.17 to - 1 on the NYSE; on the NYSE, a ratio of 1.29 to - 1 favored decliners.
The S&P 500 experienced 36 new 52 week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite had 55 new highs and 100 new lows.