Stocks rose Monday as a rebound in chipmaker and technology stocks helped lift the broader market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above a positive flatline, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite added 0.6% and 1%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on Monday:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +0.58% or +25.67 points to 4,489.72
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +0.07% or +26.23 points to 35,307.63
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.05% or +143.48 points to 13,788.33
Chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) jumped 7% on Monday, reversing much of last week's losses, after Morgan Stanley reiterated the stock as a top pick ahead of its earnings report later this month. Analyst Joseph Moore reiterated the firm's $500 price target on Nvidia, implying a 22.4% gain from Friday's close.
"With a backdrop of the massive shift in spending towards AI, and a fairly exceptional supply demand imbalance that should persist for the next several quarters; we think the recent selloff is a good entry point," Moore wrote in a Monday note.
The week ahead will be driven by key earnings from U.S. retail giants like Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD), as well as July's retail sales data due out Tuesday morning. Major retail earnings will also offer another insight on the U.S. consumer following mixed inflation reports last week.
According to a New York Federal Reserve survey released Monday showed that consumers grew more confident in July that the inflation rate will continue to fall in both the short and long terms. The July Survey of Consumer Expectations showed respondents expect inflation for next year to be at 3.5%, while three- and five-year outlooks declined to 3% and 2.9%, respectively.
Ahead of retail data this week, Bank of America Securities equity strategist Savita Subramanian upgraded the consumer discretionary sector to Overweight from Underweight on Monday, citing reasons including a revised outlook of a soft landing for the U.S. economy as it continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic's impact. The firm also downgraded consumer staples to Underweight from Marketweight.
"Their revised forecast is based on further evidence of continued resilience in the US economy, including positive GDP revisions, strength in business spending, and a rebound in labor supply," Subramanian wrote in a note to clients.
In the news Monday, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) announced Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) executive Alex Chriss will replace long-time CEO Dan Schulman in late September. Schulman will remain as a director at the payments platform until May 2024.
"I'm proud of what we have accomplished at PayPal and of the incredibly talented and committed people I work with every day," Schulman said in a statement. "Together, we have reimagined financial services and e-commerce, and worked to improve the financial health of our customers."
For Tuesday, market participants will react to July's retail sales data, as well as Home Depot's earnings report -- both due out in the morning.