Global investors on Monday digested new data, policy statements, and earnings reports. In Europe, the British FTSE rose 0.25%, the German DAX index rose 0.36%, the French CAC dipped 0.31%, and the broad STOXX 600 index edged up 0.07%. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 0.18%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) rose climbed 0.9%. The broad S&P 500 (.INX) index rose 0.47%.
Among US stocks in the S&P 500, the biggest losers today were aerospace and packaging firm Ball Corp (NYSE: BLL), which fell 5.13% at the close, healthcare services firm Henry Schein (NASDAQ: HSIC), down 4.61%, healthcare facilities firm HCA Holdings (NYSE: HCA), down 4.46%, transport systems firm Otis Worldwide (NYSE: OTIS), down 4.4%, and financial services firm American Express (NYSE: AXP), down 2.55%.
The biggest gainers were led by electric automaker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), which enjoyed a price target by Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) from $900 to $1,200, citing the increasing expected volume in the next few years. Tesla shares soared 12.66% at the close to a record high of $1,024.86 apiece. The other biggest gainers were biotech firm Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), up 7.05%, steel producer Nucor (NYSE: NUE), 6.93%, oil and gas firm Coterra Energy (NYSE: CTRA), up 5.97%, and ecommerce firm Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY), up 4.68%. COVID plays also performed well today, as German biotech firm BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) ADR shares jumped 5.96% and Sorrento Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRNE) shares climbed 5.74%. In fixed income markets, US Treasury bond yields were largely unchanged.
In commodities markets, as of press time, the price of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil rose to the highest levels in 7 years since October 2014, reaching $85.41 before settling around $84 per barrel. International Brent crude oil also rose 0.54% to $85.99 per barrel, near a three-year high. The spot price of gold climbed 0.8% to $1,805.90 per ounce, and US gold futures for December delivery settled up 0.6% at $1,806.80 per ounce, amid investors' continuing worries about persistent inflation. Also, silver's price rose 0.7% to $24.48 per ounce, platinum jumped 1.5% to $1,056.61, and palladium climbed 1.3% to $2,048.77. In crypto asset markets, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2.4%, Ether (ETH) rose 3.1%, Binance Coin (BNB) rose 1.9%, Cardano (ADA) rose 0.8%, and Solana (SOL) soared 8.7%.