The DOW JONES returns 0.26% to 34,316 points, while the S&P 500 falls 0.10% to 4,445 points. The NASDAQ 100 rose 0.09% to 13,798 points.
Wall Street has had an extraordinary first half of 2023. On Friday, The Nasdaq Composite posted its biggest first-half gain since 1983, up 31.7%.while the S&P 500 gained 15.9% for its best first half since 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Index lagged, rising a more modest 3.8% over the period.
Looking at June alone, the Dow was up 4.56%, its best monthly performance since November 2022. The S&P 500 was up 6.47% in June, its best monthly performance since October 2022. The Nasdaq was up 6.59 in June %, posting its best monthly gain since January.
The gains came as the artificial intelligence excitement buoyed tech stocks. Recent data showing a resilient US economy despite higher interest rates also boosted investor sentiment and allayed some fears on Wall Street of a long-awaited slowdown.
“The technical tailwinds may be winding down as the general pessimism fades, but signs are mounting that a shift from technicals to fundamentals is possible, with encouraging macro and earnings data,” warns Mark Hackett , head of investment research at Nationwide, in a note.
The trading week will be shortened on Monday with the closing of the market at 1:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. Spanish time) for the Independence Day holiday, which will result in a Wall Street holiday tomorrow. Still, investors will have something else to do this Monday as they specifically need to analyze the latest June manufacturing PMI and ISM manufacturing data.
The big reference of the week comes on Friday with the June jobs report. Economists expect job growth to slow in June while the unemployment rate will fall again. Before that, on Wednesday afternoon, the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting will be released, where the central bank decided to leave interest rates unchanged.
On the business front, Tesla is one of the key players in the market after the company released second-quarter vehicle production and delivery figures over the weekend that beat analysts’ expectations.
The company reported on Sunday that it had made 466,140 deliveries and produced a total of 479,700 vehicles. The numbers mean the electric vehicle maker’s shipments are up 83% year over year as it ramped up manufacturing capacity and increased production at its Austin, Texas, assembly plant. It’s the fifth straight quarter that Tesla has produced more vehicles than it shipped. Its shares open with gains of more than 5.5%.
Investors also need to pay attention to Apple after the company ended Friday down 1.5 percent a market cap of over $3 trillionwith shares at a new high.
Apple was the first company to hit a $3 trillion market cap in intraday trading back in January 2022, but failed to close the market at that level back then. Its shares are up 49% so far this year. However, the company is opening lower today after reports that it plans to throttle production of its latest big bet, Vision Pro.
In pharmaceuticals, Wall Street-listed Astrazeneca shares fell 5.7% on the back of preliminary results from a Phase III trial of a lung cancer treatment. While the drug compared well to a competitor on one endpoint, the overall survival data was “immature” and suggested the results were not statistically significant, the company acknowledged in a press release, noting that the tests be continued.
The market also needs to pay attention to the price of United Airlines, which bore the brunt of flight delays across the country over the holiday weekend.
In bond markets, US bond yields rose on Monday as investors weighed the outlook for the economy and interest rates. The reference 10-year note offers a yield of 3.85545%, up three basis points. In the biennium, the profitability increases by more than eight basis points to reach 4.9589%.
For raw materials, Oil prices have started to rise in the week after major exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia announced supply cuts for Augustwhich overshadowed concerns about a global economic slowdown.
Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that it would extend its voluntary cut of one million barrels per day (bpd) by another month, up to and including August. Meanwhile, Russia will cut its oil exports by 500,000 bpd in August, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has warned, further curtailing global supplies.
U.S. West Texas crude futures rose 0.72% to $70.96 a barrel, while benchmark European Brent crude rose 0.74% to $75.75.
The euro fell 0.09% against the dollar, giving each common currency an exchange rate of $1.0913.