US stocks push further into record territory
Both the Dow and S&P 500 notched up fresh records on Monday, with the buoyant session kicking off a heavy news week that includes tech titan earnings and a Federal Reserve interest rate decision. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 percent to finish at 38,333, a third straight all-time high, while the S&P 500 returned to record territory with a 0.8 percent gain to 4,927. The Nasdaq Composite index climbed 1.1 percent to 15,628. This week's heavy schedule of earnings includes most of the biggest tech giants, such as Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Apple and Facebook parent Meta. Last week's results from Netflix wowed markets, while fellow tech giant Tesla sank after a disappointing report and outlook. Markets are girding for the Fed to again keep interest rates unchanged. But investors are also expecting "that the Fed is going to say that inflation is pretty much on target" and "well anchored," said Spartan Capital's Peter Cardillo. Investors are also "looking for some sort of time frame for the first rate cut," Cardillo said. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note pulled back after the Treasury Department disclosed that it expects less borrowing in the first quarter compared with its October 2023 estimate. Among individual companies, iRobot dropped 8.8 percent after Amazon withdrew a plan to acquire the autonomous vacuum maker as the EU's antitrust authority objected to the plan over competition concerns. Amazon gained 1.3 percent. (AFP)