By Krystal Hu and Medha Singh
(Reuters) – The Nasdaq jumped to an all-time high on Monday, supported by tech-related stocks as interest rates remain low, while investors awaited data on the U.S. labor market due on Friday.
Big tech companies including Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Nvidia Corp were among the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
In contrast, cyclical sectors dropped sharply amid fears over a spike in COVID-19 cases across Asia. Financials, energy and airlines fell between 0.9% and 3.3%. All major S&P sectors fell, except technology and utilities which gained 0.9% and 0.67%.
“It’s end of the quarter and investors may want to take some profits and rotate out of energy and stick with tech, which has been the winner,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.
Stovall expects stocks should continue their near-term climb as investors await the new earnings season, in which year-over-year earnings growth of S&P 500 companies is expected to top 60%.
The S&P 500 on Friday logged its best weekly performance in 20 weeks, following a bipartisan agreement on a $1.2 trillion U.S. infrastructure spending deal and waning concerns about a sooner-than-expected policy tightening from the Federal Reserve.
Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit a series of record highs last week. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 5% gain in June is outpacing its peers as investors pile back into tech-oriented growth stocks on diminishing worries about runaway inflation.
“There’s more Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) than the fear of losing money here right now and tech stocks have a lot of FOMO,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC.
With the S&P 500 up almost 14% as the first half of 2021 draws to a close, activity in some areas of the market indicates concern over potential volatility, with some investors suggesting the market may be overdue for a significant pullback. By 1:50 p.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 190.08 points, or 0.55%, at 34,243.76, the S&P 500 lost 0.61 point, or 0.01%, to 4,280.09 and the Nasdaq Composite added 86.23 points, or 0.6%, to 14,446.61.
On the economic front, investor attention will be focused on consumer confidence data, a private jobs report and a crucial monthly employment report due later this week. Quarterly results from Micron Technology Inc and Walgreens Boots Alliance are also slated for this week.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.70-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.31-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 88 new highs and 28 new lows.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York; Additional reporting by Medha Singh and Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)
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