Earnings Optimism Contributes To Continued Strength On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Monday, extending the notable advance seen last week. With the continued upward move, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record closing highs.

The major averages all closed in positive territory, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq outperformed its counterparts. While the Nasdaq jumped 136.51 points or 0.9 percent to 15,226.71, the S&P 500 rose 21.58 points or 0.5 percent to 4,566.48 and the Dow edged up 64.13 points or 0.2 percent to 35,741.15.

The strength on Wall Street partly reflected optimism about more upbeat earnings news, with a slew of big-name companies due to report their quarterly results this week.

Facebook (FB), General Electric (GE), UPS (UPS), Alphabet (GOOGL), Coca-Cola (KO), General Motors (GM), McDonald's (MCD), Ford (F), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (APPL), and Exxon Mobil (XOM) are just a few of the companies due to report their results in the coming days.

Upbeat earnings news has contributed to a recent upward trend on Wall Street, as most companies have reported better than expected results.

Trading activity was somewhat subdued, however, as a lack of major U.S. economic data kept some traders on the sidelines.

Some traders may also have been reluctant to make more significant moves ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting next week.

The Fed is likely to leave interest rates unchanged but could announce plans to begin scaling back its asset purchase program.

Shares of Telsa (TSLA) moved sharply higher on the day after car rental giant ordered 100,000 of the electric car maker's vehicles for its fleet.

PayPal (PYPL) also saw significant strength after the financial technology company said it is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest (PINS). On the other hand, shares of Pinterest saw a steep drop on the news.

Consumer products company Kimberly-Clark (KMB) also moved to the downside after reporting weaker than expected third quarter earnings.

Steel stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, driving the NYSE Arca Steel Index up by 3.5 percent.

Considerable strength was also visible among gold stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.

The strength in the gold sector came amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for December delivery rising $10.50 to $1,806.80 an ounce.

Oil and retail stocks also saw notable strength on the day, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slid by 0.7 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index advanced by 0.8 percent.

The major European markets also ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index fell by 0.3 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.4 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved modestly higher, extending the rebound seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2 basis points to 1.635 percent.

Looking Ahead

Reaction to the latest earnings news may drive trading on Tuesday, with Facebook, Logitech (LOGI), and Universal Health (UHS) among the companies releasing their quarterly results after the close of today's trading.

3M (MMM), Eli Lilly (LLY), General Electric, Hasbro (HAS), JetBlue (JBLU), UPS, and Xerox (XRX) are also among the companies due to report their results before the start of trading on Tuesday.

Trading on Tuesday may also be impacted by reaction to reports on home prices, new home sales and consumer confidence.