Stock Market Today: Tech Takes Off as Bond Yields Taper Off
The Nasdaq's mega-caps take flight as Treasury yields pull back, and Tesla joins in amid another vote of confidence from Ark Invest's Cathie Wood.
The Nasdaq Composite kicked off the trading week by taking its cue from the bond market yet again, with the tech-heavy index outpacing its peers Monday as Treasury yields stepped back.
A number of mega-cap tech stocks put up solid gains, including Apple (AAPL, +2.8%), Facebook (FB, +1.2%) and Nvidia (NVDA, +2.7%), powering a 1.2% gain in the Nasdaq to 13,377.
Electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA, +2.3%) headed higher too, though you can also chalk that up to an exuberant statement from Cathie Wood. The Ark Invest CEO said over the weekend that TSLA shares, which fetched almost $655 at the end of last week, would reach $3,000 by 2025.
Tesla also likely was reacting well to CEO Elon Musk's response to China, which restricted use of its EVs by state personnel after a Chinese security review revealed vehicle sensors could record images of their surroundings. Musk said Tesla "would never provide" the U.S. with such data.
"We believe this statement (while assumed) was important for Tesla and Musk to make directly to the Chinese and the government in Beijing given the strategic importance of its EV ambitions within China," says Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, who rates TSLA at Hold.
The other major indices put up slightly smaller gains Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.3% to 32,731, and the S&P 500 up 0.7% to 3,940.
One factor potentially weighing on more economically sensitive stocks in the short term? While vaccinations are being administered at a rapid pace, COVID-19 cases are rising across more than half of the U.S. – likely the result of both the introduction of more contagious variants and the phasing-out of various social distancing restrictions.
Other action in the stock market today:
- The Russell 2000 bucked the trend, dropping 0.9% to 2,266.
- Kansas City Southern (KSU) jumped 11.1% after fellow railroad operator Canadian Pacific Railway (CP, -5.8%) offered to buy the firm out for $25 billion.
- U.S. crude oil futures slipped 0.2% to $61.55 per barrel.
- Gold futures finished with a similar decline, off 0.2% to $1,738.10 per ounce.
- Bitcoin prices slumped 6.0% from their Friday levels, reaching $55,853 on Monday. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
Is Infrastructure About to Take Off?
Still, the market is trending up, and another emerging bullish driver could help sustain that momentum.
The New York Times, citing people familiar with the plans, say the Biden administration is prepping pitches for $3 trillion in spending across several initiatives, including (and likely starting with) a massive infrastructure bill.
This effort would reportedly "spend heavily on infrastructure improvements, clean energy deployment and the development of other 'high-growth industries of the future' like 5G telecommunications" – key themes behind our top "Biden" stocks and potential catalysts for these 12 infrastructure-minded stocks.
An infrastructure push also would be yet more wind in the sails of commodity prices and, by extension, the companies that help produce them.
A wide variety of commodities, from metals to oil to timber, have rallied for several months on the prospects of a global economic rebound – and, by and large, Wall Street believes many of them still have more room to run.
Read on as we look at five commodity stocks that stand out right now.
