Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on January 19, 2024 in New York City. Stocks closed up over 350 points while the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Friday.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Stocks rose Monday as investors built on the previous session’s historic move to record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 138.01 points, or 0.36%, to finish at 38,001.81. Monday’s gains pushed the blue-chip average to a new record and above the 38,000 level for the first time. The S&P 500 added 0.22% to 4,850.43, also reaching a fresh all-time high. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.32% to 15,360.29.
Macy’s rose more than 3% after rejecting a $5.8 billion proposal to take the retailer private. SolarEdge jumped roughly 4% on the back of the company announcing it would lay off 16% of its workforce.
Archer-Daniels-Midland plunged more than 24% after issuing weak earnings guidance and placing CFO Vikram Luthar on leave amid an investigation tied to accounting practices. B Riley Financial slipped around 2.5% after Bloomberg reported that regulators are investigating deals with a client connected to securities fraud.
Monday’s gains come after the broad S&P 500 on Friday broke above its intraday and closing record highs set in January 2022. The move signaled that Wall Street is indeed in a bull run that began in October 2022 after stocks plunged earlier that year.
“It’s almost like a fear of missing out,” said Brian Price, head of investment management at Commonwealth Financial. “We had a little bit of volatility to start the year as investors maybe rebalance portfolios and look to realize some gains. But now, it just seems like we’re resuming the trend that was clearly in place” in the fourth quarter.
The S&P 500 and Dow, all-time chart
Wall Street’s strength may depend on whether the U.S. central bank successfully engineers a soft landing, cooling the economy to lower inflation while avoiding a recession.
Traders are now pricing in a roughly 40% chance of a Fed rate cut in March, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. That marks a steep decrease from almost 81% a week earlier. There’s a nearly 58% likelihood that the central bank will keep rates steady, up from around 19% one week prior.
Investors will be closely watching a slate of economic reports due out this week, including fourth quarter gross domestic product on Thursday and the Fed’s favorite inflation measure, December’s personal consumption expenditures price index on Friday. Both reports will help shape how Fed officials view monetary policy moving forward.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the report date for gross domestic product data. The Commerce Department will release its initial gross domestic product estimate on Thursday.
