S&P 500, Nasdaq close at records as investors shrug off inflation concerns
- US stocks were mixed, and the bond-market rally lost steam as investors awaited a key Fed decision.
- Technology stocks lifted the Nasdaq, with Apple jumping 2%.
- Bitcoin rallied back above $40,000.
The S&P 500 hit a record high for the second trading day in a row, while a rally in tech stocks helped lift the Nasdaq to a record high. Investors are awaiting a key Fed decision coming later this week. Technology was the best-performing sector in the S&P 500, with Apple gaining 2% and Facebook climbing over 1%. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury rose to 1.5% after hitting a three-month low last week.
Investors are eagerly waiting for signals from the US Federal Reserve later this week about a timetable for scaling back ultra-accommodative policies. The decision is due Wednesday, with most economists anticipating the central bank will leave its policy mostly unchanged.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET close on Monday:
- S&P 500: 4,255.15, up 0.18%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,393.75, down 0.25% (85.85 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 14,174.14, up 0.74%
Strategists can't seem to agree on whether inflation will be transitory or not, despite the Fed insisting it will be short-lived.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, the billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones said he was preparing to go "all in" on his inflation trade if the Fed remained unconcerned about rising prices. But others said last week's consumer-price-index data was elevated because of year-over-year comparisons.
"The largest increases were limited to used vehicles, energy and airfare," Nuveen's Saira Malik said. "Given the lack of evidence of rampant, widespread inflation, we remain confident in the Fed's ability to stay on-message, even if discussions of tapering come a few quarters earlier than originally expected."
Elsewhere in markets, lumber prices fell as much as 6% on Monday to briefly trade below $1,000 per thousand board feet for the first time since March.
Bitcoin rose above $40,000 after Elon Musk suggested Tesla would accept payment in cryptocurrency once mining could be done using cleaner energy.
West Texas Intermediate crude gained as much as 1.2% to $71.78 a barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rose 1.3% to $73.64 a barrel at intraday highs.
Gold fell as much as 1.8%, to $1845.70 an ounce.