Wall Street advanced during Monday's session as investors were encouraged by the signs that the United States will be starting to reopen the economy is a few states. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both closed at their highest levels since early March and the Dow Jones broke above its 50-day average for the first time since February 21. Yet, U.S. crude oil began to drop again after four sessions of gains as future demand diminishes due to the coronavirus pandemic wearing on.
A few states including Alaska, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are beginning to allow restaurants and other establishments to serve customers beginning in May. New York also issued phased reopening guidelines that will begin on May 15. However, New York is planning on opening as slowly and safely as possible in order to curb a second wave.
Here's how the market settled to open the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +1.47% or +41.74 points to 2,878.48
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +1.51% or +358.51 points to 24,133.78
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +1.11% or +95.64 points to 8,730.16
In Major Stock News, entertainment and retail stocks like Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS), MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM), Gap (NYSE: GPS) and Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) all enjoyed a performance boost due to more positive news surround the United States's economic restart. Big banks-- JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), Bank of America (NYSE BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE GS)-- also rallied due to economic reopening plans. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) announced that the companies' clinical trial for potential COVID-19 treatment only benefitted those with severe illness, moving the drug makers to narrow the trial.
In Sector Performance News, every sector enjoyed gains from Monday's rally. The stock performance growth was as follows: Financials +3.61%, Real Estate +3% , Materials +2.64%, Industrials +2.52%, Energy +2.10%, Health Care +1.31%, Consumer Discretionary +1.20%, utilities +1.09%, Information Technology +0.91%, Communication Services +0.56% and Consumer Staples +0.33%.
In Commodity and Currency News, U.S. crude dropped again on Monday, with market participants fearing the demand still does not match supply. West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) fell -22.85% to $13.07 per barrel, while Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) declined almost -8% to $19.76 per barrel. Gold (NYSE: GLD) also lost some value on Monday, with prices slipping -0.45% to $1,727.80 per ounce. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) settled down -0.24% as investors pushed more money into stocks.
For Tuesday, market participants will be paying attention to economic reopening and coronavirus related headlines, as well as earnings from companies like PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP), 3M (NYSE: MMM), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) and Alphabet (NYSE: GOOGL).