Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Stocks rose Monday as investors built on the previous session’s historic move to record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 187 points, or 0.5%, to a new record level. The S&P 500 added 0.2%, also reaching a fresh all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3%.
Macy’s climbed more than 3% after rejecting a $5.8 billion proposal from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management to take the retailer private. SolarEdge jumped more than 6% on the back of the company announcing it would lay off 16% of its workforce.
Archer-Daniels-Midland dropped more than 19% after issuing weak earnings guidance and placing CFO Vikram Luthar on leave amid an investigation tied to accounting practices. B Riley Financial slipped nearly 4% after Bloomberg reported that regulators are investigating deals with a client connected to securities fraud.
Monday’s gains come after the broad S&P 500 on Friday broke above its intraday and closing record highs set in January 2022. The move signaled that Wall Street is indeed in a bull run that began in October 2022 after stocks plunged earlier that year.
“It’s almost like a fear of missing out,” said Brian Price, head of investment management at Commonwealth Financial. “We had a little bit of volatility to start the year as investors maybe rebalance portfolios and look to realize some gains. But now, it just seems like we’re resuming the trend that was clearly in place” in the fourth quarter.
The S&P 500 and Dow, all-time chart
Wall Street’s strength may depend on whether the U.S. central bank successfully engineers a soft landing, cooling the economy to lower inflation while avoiding a recession.
Traders are now pricing in a roughly 46% chance of a Fed rate cut in March, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. That marks a steep decrease from almost 81% a week earlier. There’s a nearly 54% likelihood that the central bank will keep rates steady, up from around 19% one week prior.
Investors will be closely watching a slate of economic reports due out this week, including fourth quarter gross domestic product on Thursday and the Fed’s favorite inflation measure, December’s personal consumption expenditures price index on Friday. Both reports will help shape how Fed officials view monetary policy moving forward.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the report date for gross domestic product data. The Commerce Department will release its initial gross domestic product estimate on Thursday.