U.S. stocks moved higher Monday, heading into the start of an important week for economic data releases focused on inflation prospects, with investors ready to test fresh record highs for the three major benchmarks following the weekend passage of President Joe Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Stocks ended last week on a high note, with the S&P 500 extending its advance to a fifth consecutive week thanks in part to a stronger-than-expected reading for October jobs gains, dovish signaling from the Federal Reserve on interest rates and a solid corporate earnings season.
In fact, with 445 S&P 500 companies reporting so far, collective S&P 500 profits are expected to rise 41.5% from last year to $451.5 billion, with more than more than 80% of updates topping Street forecasts.
That pace of profit growth continues to offset concerns over faster inflation, which were evident in the 4.9% year-on-year surge for average hourly earnings and will likely be so again in Wednesday’s October CPI release.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell with have two chances to at a least allude to the markets’ concerns on both issues this week, with scheduled appearances today at 10:30 am and tomorrow at 9:00 am, both of which are likely to be made by pre-recorded video.
Another Wednesday data point worth noting will be China’s October PPI reading, which, alongside a record monthly trade surplus of $84.54 billion and a 27.1% surge in exports, could also add upward prices pressures across the global supply chain in the months ahead.
It will be a light week for corporate earnings, as well, with only 18 S&P 500 companies reporting, including Walt Disney (DIS) – Get Walt Disney Company Report, PayPal (PYPL) – Get PayPal Holdings Inc Report, Coty (COTY) – Get Coty Inc. Class A Report, Wynn Resorts (WYNN) – Get Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN) Report and Nordstrom (JWN) – Get Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) Report.
In the meantime, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 144 points in the opening hour of trading to hit a fresh record high of 36,565.73 points. The S&P 500 gained 10 points while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite rose 40 points even amid a 5.25% dip for Tesla (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc Report following indications that founder and CEO Elon Musk may sell as much as 10% of his stake in the clean-energy carmaker.
Musk, who has come under fire from some U.S. lawmakers over his ability to avoid capital gains taxes despite the billions of value added to Tesla shares over the past five years, conducting a Twitter poll over the weekend that ask if he should sell some of his 170.5 million shares in order to create a tax liability; around 57.5% of the more than 3.5 million respondents in the poll vote “yes”.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) – Get Delta Air Lines, Inc. Report shares were also active, rising 2% to $45.15 each as visitors from more than thirty countries — including China and most of Europe — were permitted to enter the United States today for the first time since March…
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