WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - U.S. stocks closed on a firm note on Monday with two of the three major indices moving on to record fresh highs, thanks to strong buying at several counters from across various sectors.
Optimism about interest rate cuts by the Fed, and rising prospects of former President Donald Trump winning the upcoming presidential elections rendered the mood positive on Wall Street.
The Dow ended up 210.82 points or 0.53 percent at 40,211.72 after scaling a new high at 40,351.10. The S&P 500, which climbed to a new high of 5,666.94, settled at 5,631.22, gaining 15.87 points or 0.28 percent, while the Nasdaq ended with a gain of 74.12 points or 0.4 percent at 18,472.57, after hitting a high of 18,641.53.
Caterpillar climbed more than 3 percent. Goldman Sachs gained about 2.6 percent on strong second quarter results.
JP Morgan Chase and American Express gained 2.5 percent, and 2.25 percent, respectively. Apple Inc, Visa, Chevron, Travelers Companies, Walmart and UnitedHealth Group also closed on firm note.
Netflix, Adobe Inc, Costco Wholesale Corp, Qualcomm, Tesla, Automatic Data Processing and Marriott International closed with strong gains.
Nike ended down nearly 3 percent. Boeing, Verizon Communications, 3M Co, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's Corp and Amazon lost 0.9 to 2 percent.
Trump Media & Technology shares zoomed nearly 32 percent amid huge volumes, following Trump's fortunate escape from the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
In economic news, a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed regional manufacturing activity contracted at a slightly faster rate in the month of July.
The New York Fed said its general business conditions index edged down to a negative 6.6 in July from a negative 6.0 in June, with a negative reading indicating contraction. Economists had expected the index to come in unchanged.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who spoke at the Economic Club of Washington D.C. today, said that the central bank will not wait until inflation hits 2% to cut interest rates.
Powell referenced the idea that central bank policy works with 'long and variable lags' to explain why the Fed wouldn't wait for its target to be hit.
'The implication of that is that if you wait until inflation gets all the way down to 2%, you've probably waited too long, because the tightening that you're doing, or the level of tightness that you have, is still having effects which will probably drive inflation below 2%,' Powell said.
In overseas trading, Asian stocks ended mixed on Monday as Chinese GDP data disappointed and the dollar firmed up on bets that Donald Trump will win the upcoming presidential election after an assassination attempt on Saturday.
The major European markets closed lower, weighed down by some disappointing economic data from China, and none too encouraging corporate earnings updates.
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