The single biggest gainer in the S&P 500 was Super Micro Computer, which jumped 8.2% to bring its year-to-date gain to 221.5%. The company, which sells servers and storage systems used in artificial intelligence and other computing, is part of the AI supernova that has overshadowed almost everything else on Wall Street.
Chip company Broadcom rose 5.9% to add to gains from last week after it reported better-than-expected profit and said it would undergo a 10-for-1 stock split to make its price more affordable. affordable. It followed Nvidia, the company that has become the poster child of the AI craze, and just executed a similar split.
Broadcom was one of the strongest forces pushing the S&P 500 higher, along with a 2.8% gain for Apple and a 1.5% gain for Microsoft.
Such continued momentum for Big Tech stocks, along with easing pressure on inflation, has investors “rejoicing in the “glass half-full” outlook rather than focusing on the struggles of low-income Americans and medium, among other challenges, according to Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise.
Big Tech was helping to offset pressure on the stock market caused by rising Treasury yields in the bond market. Rising yields erased some of the slack created last week when better-than-expected inflation reports raised hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates later this year.
There are few top-level economic reports for the United States this coming week, outside of Tuesday’s update on how much consumers are spending at U.S. retailers and Friday’s preview of the state of U.S. business activity. Markets will also be closed on Wednesday for the June 11 holiday.
A report Monday said manufacturing in New York state is still contracting, though not as much as economists expected. Manufacturing has been one of the areas hardest hit by the Federal Reserve’s zeal to keep its key interest rate at its highest level in more than two decades.
The Fed is trying to keep rates high long enough to slow the economy and quell high inflation, but it wants to cut rates and reverse the momentum before the slowdown evolves into a painful recession.
High interest rates hurt all kinds of investments, and they tend to hit certain areas especially hard. Utilities in the S&P 500 fell 0.8% for the biggest loss among the 11 sectors that make up the index. They are often hurt when bonds pay more in interest and attract income-seeking investors who would otherwise gravitate to utilities.
GameStop was another laggard, falling 10.8% after its annual shareholder meeting. Stocks have been rising and sinking as they ride waves of enthusiasm from investors with smaller pockets. At the meeting, CEO Ryan Cohen said the video game retailer would focus on cutting costs that would include a “smaller store network.”
In the bond market, the 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.27% from 4.22% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose less. It climbed to 4.76% from 4.71%.
On the stock markets abroad, European indices eased somewhat after last week’s decline. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.9% after falling last week to its worst week in two years, on concerns that potential losses from the president’s centrist party could lead to much higher debt for the country.
Modest gains for Europe followed losses in Asia. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.8%.
___
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
#Stock #market #today #Wall #Street #rallies #records #big #tech #stocks #continue #rise
Image Source : www.ajc.com