Stocks climbed higher Monday, recovering some of the losses from last week, as market participants traded ahead of key inflation data and the Federal Reserve's final monetary policy decision of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped over 500 points, while the S&P 500 added 1.4% and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.3% higher.
Here's how the market settled on Monday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +1.43% or +56.18 points to 3,990.56
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +1.58% or +528.58 points to 34,005.04
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.26% or +139.12 points to 11,143.74
Market sentiment was positively influenced Monday by two large deals between Thoma Bravo and Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) and Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) and Horizon Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HZNP), with Coupa and Horizon shares rising 26% and 15%, respectively, following their separate takeover announcements. The Dow also saw a boost from Boeing (NYSE: BA) following reports that the airline is close to making a deal with Air India.
All three major averages suffered losses last week, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their worst weekly losses since September. The Nasdaq fell the lowest, dropping 4% for the week.
Also making headlines on Monday, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) announced a 10-year partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group (OTC: LNSTY), which includes a 4% stake in the financial company for the tech company. Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) announced it is halting plans to make electric commercial vans with Mercedes-Benz (OTC: MBGYY) in Europe. Twitter rolled out its updated Twitter Blue, which includes a nearly 30% surcharge for users subscribing through Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS devices.
In economic news, a New York Federal Reserve survey released Monday showed consumers are becoming more optimistic despite persistently high inflation. Survey respondent in the Fed's Survey of Consumer Expectations indicated they see inflation reducing in the short term, one year from now, as well as in the three- and five-year outlooks.
Wall Street is getting ready for a busy week ahead, which includes November's Consumer Price Index (CPI) report due out Tuesday morning--this will be the last economic report the Federal Reserve will see before policymakers issue the final interest rate hike of the year. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate headline CPI to increase by 0.3% for the second-straight month in a row, and for annual CPI to decrease from 7.7% to 7.3%.
The central bank is expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points at the conclusion of the Fed's two-day policy meeting on Wednesday. Wall Street will then watch for clues on the Fed's path forward for interest rates from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-meeting remarks Wednesday afternoon.