Stocks closed mostly higher Monday, with two of the three major benchmarks building on Friday's positive momentum.
Amid a relatively bare economic and earnings calendar, investors took in a deluge of single-stock news, including reports of a potential nationwide TikTok ban – which sent Snap (SNAP) stock soaring.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average outpaced its peers today, adding 0.1% to 33,431, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.07% to 4,048. The Nasdaq Composite, however, slipped into the red near the close, giving back 0.1% to 11,675.
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While moves for the major benchmarks were modest, Snapchat parent Snap jumped 9.4% amid reports Congress is considering a nationwide ban of Chinese social media platform TikTok.
Last week, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee advanced legislation that would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok in the U.S. due to national security concerns. The bill will now proceed to the House of Representatives for a full vote. In December, Congress passed a bill that banned the platform from use on devices owned by the federal government. Social media stock Pinterest (PINS, +1.1%) also closed higher.
Elsewhere, Apple (AAPL, +1.9%) was one of the best Dow stocks today – second only to healthcare giant Merck (MRK, +3.9%) – after Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng initiated coverage on the iPhone maker with a Buy rating. "Apple's installed base growth, secular growth in services, and new product innovation should more than offset cyclical headwinds to product revenue, such as a reduced iPhone unit demand due to a lengthening replacement cycle and reduced consumer demand for the PC & tablet category," Ng wrote in a note to clients.
The best blue chip dividend stocks
The rest of the week will draw more economic headlines. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to kick off his two-day congressional testimony tomorrow, with investors anxious for more clarity on the central bank's future plans for interest rates. Economic data has come in relatively strong recently, and the next big data point is due out at the end of this week. Specifically, the February jobs report will be released ahead of Friday's open.
"This week will likely deliver a make-or-break moment for risk appetite as we will hear Fed Chair Powell's testimony to Congress and find out if the hot January jobs report was an aberration," says Edward Moya, senior market strategist at currency data provider OANDA.
With inflation data due out next week, and the next Fed meeting scheduled for the end of this month, the potential for volatility is high. As such, investors should stay focused on the best blue chip stocks that are poised to weather the storm – and what better place to start than with the best blue chip dividend stocks? This short list of high-quality names can deliver both income and outperformance in a turbulent market.
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