Stocks rose Monday as market participants looked ahead towards a busy week of big tech earnings and the Federal Reserve's next policy decision. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed over 200 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite advanced roughly 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively. Monday's session also marked a fresh all-time closing high for the S&P 500.
Here's how the market settled on Monday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.76% or +36.96 points to 4,927.93
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.59% or +224.02 points to 38,333.45
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.12% or +172.68 points to 15,628.04
In Focus: The week ahead is one of the busiest for the fourth-quarter earnings season, with nearly 20% of the S&P 500 reporting alongside mega tech names like Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) throughout the week.
Separately, the Federal Open Market Committee will kick off its two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, with the majority of investors expecting central bankers to hold interest rates steady at their current target range of 5.25% to 5.50% on Wednesday.
John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, wrote in a Monday research note that t policymakers will likely keep interest rates at their current level until the second half of the year.
"We believe the Fed is getting close enough to its inflation target rate for investors who keep their expectations of rate cuts right sized to likely be pleasantly surprised later this year," Stoltzfus said. "our expectations remain for the Fed to cut once or twice in the second half of this year."
In Single-Stock News: Shares of iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) dropped on Monday after Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced it has terminated its proposed deal to buy the Roomba maker on antitrust concerns. Separately, iRobot said it plans to layoff 350 employees, or 31% of its workforce as its conducts a restructuring plan.
"Amazon's proposed acquisition of iRobot has no path to regulatory approval in the European Union, preventing Amazon and iRobot from moving forward together-a loss for consumers, competition, and innovation," the companies said in a joint press release.
FanDuel parent Flutter (NYSE: FLUT) started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. offering another pure play in sport betting alongside Penn Entertainment's (NASDAQ: PENN) ESPN Bet And DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG). The company will maintain its listing on the London Stock Exchange and continue to be included in the FTSE 100 Index.
For Tuesday: market participants will react to earnings from companies including Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), UPS (NYSE: UPS), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) Microsoft and Alphabet due out before and after the day's trading bell. Economic reports on job openings for December and consumer confidence for January are also slated for release in the morning.