Stocks rose on Monday as investment sentiment rose due to a multiple factors like the large number of companies scheduled to report second quarter earnings this week, more positive coronavirus vaccine data, and the chance of more economic stimulus to come. All three major benchmarks ended Monday's session with notable gains, with the S&P 500 erasing all its losses and turning positive for 2020.
Earlier on Monday, Dow-component Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), partnering with German biotech BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX), reported additional positive data for its early stage clinical trial of its coronavirus vaccine candidate. The Lancet also published the results of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and University of Oxford's potential vaccine, showing that the vaccine is both safe and effective in the early stage clinical trial.
However, the stock market is still being held back by the continued coronavirus outbreak within the United States. Over the weekend, the U.S. death toll surpassed 140,000 as infection rates throughout the country remain high.
Here's how the market settled to start the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.84% or +27.11 points to 3,251.84
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.03% of +8.98 points to 26,680.93
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +2.51% or +263.90 points to 10,767.09
For Major Stock News, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares rallied on Monday, carrying all of big tech--Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL)--with it, after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) raised the stock's price target to $3,800. Frontrunner in the coronavirus vaccine race, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) shares fell after JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) noted that the stock may be overvalued. Chevron (NYSE: CVX) announced on Monday that it will acquire Noble Energy (NASDAQ: NBL) in an all-stock transaction valued at about $5 billion.
For Sector Performance, most industries ended Monday's session in negative territory. The few sectors that gained were Consumer Discretionary +3.14%, Information Technology +2.58% and Communication Services +1.25%. The rest that settled with performance losses include: Energy -1.72%, Utilities -1.36%, Industrials -1.15%, Real Estate -1.00%, Consumer Staples -0.96%, Materials -0.84%, Financials -0.37% and Health Care -0.01%.
For Commodities and Currency, crude prices rose slightly on Monday on positive demand hopes. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) rose 0.54% to $40.81 per barrel, while Brent Crude gained 0.35% to settle at $43.29. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices also increased as COVID-19 infection rates remain high. Spot gold prices increased 0.4% to $1,815.34 per ounce, and futures also climbed 0.4% to $1,817.40 per ounce. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) ticked slightly higher on expectations for more stimulus in the U.S. and European Union.
On Tuesday, officials from Merck (NYSE: MRK), Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) are scheduled to testify before the House Committee of Energy and Commerce to discuss their vaccine progress. In addition, another batch of corporate earnings are slated to be released on Tuesday, including big names like Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP).