US stocks jump as investors get ready for a slew of corporate earnings
- US stocks jumped on Monday as investors get ready for a slew of corporate earnings results.
- About 25% of the S&P 500 is expected to report their fourth-quarter earnings this week.
- Tech stocks led the way higher on Monday after Spotify cut 6% of its workforce and an activist investor bought Salesforce.
US stocks surged on Monday, with the S&P 500 jumping above the closely-watched 4,000 level and its 200-day moving average.
The strong session on Monday extends big gains from Friday as investors assess a stream of corporate news and earnings results.
About 25% of companies in the S&P 500 are set to report fourth-quarter results this week. Of the 57 companies that have already reported results so far, 67% beat profit estimates by a median of 5%, while 67% beat revenue estimates by a median of 2%, according to data from Fundstrat.
More layoffs hit the tech sector on Monday, with Spotify saying it plans to cut 6% of its workforce, or about 600 employees. The job cuts from Spotify are after Amazon, Alphabet, Salesforce, and Microsoft all cut jobs in recent weeks. Shares of Spotify jumped as much as 5% before paring those gains.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Monday:
- S&P 500: 4,019.65, up 1.18%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,628.84, up 0.76% (253.35 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 11,364.41, up 2.01%
Here's what else happened today:
- Activist investor Elliott Management took a multi-billion dollar stake in Salesforce after the stock fell 50% from its peak. Shares of Salesforce jumped 3%.
- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried held just under $50 million in an account with little-known Farmington State Bank, located in rural Washington state, according to a court filing published Friday.
- Janet Yellen has crushed hopes the US Treasury could mint a $1 trillion platinum coin to help cover the country's bills as it struggles with a debt default.
- "It truly is not by any means to be taken as a given that the Fed would do it, and I think especially with something that's a gimmick," Treasury Secretary Yellen said in a Wall Street Journal interview published Sunday, referring to the possibility that the Treasury could mint a $1 trillion coin to avoid the US defaulting on its debts.
- Billionaire Ken Griffin's hedge fund Citadel surpassed rivals by earning a record $16 billion in profit for investors last year – the largest hedge fund gain in history.
In commodities, bonds and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.04% to $81.67 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped 0.52% to $88.09.
- Gold rose 0.23% to $1,932.70 per ounce.
- The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose five basis points to 3.53%.
- Bitcoin rose 0.92% to $22,968, while ether dropped 0.34% to $1,630.