Following the advance seen last Friday, stocks have seen some further upside over the course of morning trading on Monday. With the upward move, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has reached its best intraday level in well over a month.
In recent trading, the Dow and the S&P 500 have reached new highs for the session. The Dow is up 275.32 points or 1.2 percent at 24,050.59, the Nasdaq is up 89.24 points or 1 percent at 8,723.76 and the S&P 500 is up 30.79 points or 1.1 percent at 2,867.53.
The strength on Wall Street comes after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans for a phased reopening of his state’s economy.
Cuomo suggested the first phase, which involves “low risk” businesses in the manufacturing and construction sectors, could begin shortly after New York’s stay-at-home order expires on May 15.
The decision to announce the reopening plans comes as New York has seen as steady decline in coronavirus hospitalization rates, with Cuomo expressing optimism the worst is over.
“The numbers are on the decline. Everything we have done is working,” Cuomo said during a press briefing on Sunday, “There’s no doubt that we’ve gone at this point through the worst. And as long as we act prudently going forward, the worst should be over.”
The announcement by Cuomo comes as other states, including several led by Republican governors, have already started reopening their economies.
Buying interest may also have been generated due to optimism about additional stimulus ahead of Federal Reserve and European Central Bank meetings later this week.
Earlier today, the Bank of Japan expanded its monetary stimulus for the second straight month to support economic and financial activities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Financial stocks have shown significant move to the upside in morning trading, with the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index and the KBW Bank Index spiking by 3.4 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Considerable strength has also emerged among housing stocks, as reflected by the 2.4 percent jump by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index.
Networking, steel and commercial real estate stocks are also seeing notable strength, moving higher along with most of other major sectors.
Meanwhile, oil service stocks are bucking the uptrend amid a sharp pullback by the price of crude oil. Crude for June delivery is plunging $4.37 to $12.57 a barrel.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 2.7 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index jumped by 1.9 percent.
The major European markets have also shown significant moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index has surged up by 2.3 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 1.8 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index is up by 1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved notably lower over the course of the morning. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 5.5 basis points at 0.651 percent.
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