China shares, megacaps bolster Wall Street
US stocks ended a choppy session slightly higher on Monday, helped by gains in Amazon.com and other mega-cap growth shares as well as Chinese tech stocks, while persistent worries over inflation and interest rates kept a lid on the market. Helping sentiment were easing regulatory crackdowns in China and signs in parts of China of a return to more normal activity after the country's biggest Covid-19 outbreak in two years. Shares of Amazon.com rose 2 percent and were the biggest positive for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq after the online retailer split its shares 20 for 1. Apple shares climbed 0.5 percent. The tech giant at its annual software developer conference announced among other things that it would more deeply integrate its software into the core driving systems of cars. Among sectors, consumer discretionary and communication services had the day's biggest gains. But investors remain focused on inflation and rising interest rates. A US consumer price index report on Friday is expected to show still-high inflation, and US Treasury yields rose on Monday. A solid jobs report on Friday lowered hopes of a pause in the Federal Reserve's aggressive policy-tightening plan to fight inflation. "There's been a push-pull in the markets now for a while," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in Chicago. The jobs report was evidence that "the economy is still in OK shape," he said. But "with inflation running kind of high and commodity prices still rising and putting in new all-time highs, maybe that peak of inflation is still in that ethereal future." The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.05 percent, to 32,916, the S&P 500 gained 0.31 percent, to 4,121 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.4 percent, to 12,061. US-listed shares of Chinese firms rallied after a report that Chinese regulators are concluding probes into ride-hailing giant Didi Global and two other firms. The KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF jumped 4.7 percent and Didi Global gained 24.3 percent. (Reuters)