Wall Street ends higher after 7 consecutive weeks of losses Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) – On Monday, shares closed much higher, which was an optimistic start to the week on Wall Street after seven weeks of decline, which nearly stopped the bull market, which began in March 2020.

The S&P 500 rose 1.9%, and technology and financial stocks did much of the hard work for the benchmark. The Dow Industrial Average was up 2% and the Nasdaq was up 1.6%.

Recent large market sales have forced traders to buy large technology stocks and shares in other companies that were operators before the market, said Quincy Crosby, chief capital strategist at LPL Financial.

“Today we see traders and investors coming and enjoying lower (price) levels,” she said. “It’s a tug of war in the market between those who say the market has become attractively valued and those who say ‘not really’ because it doesn’t take into account much slower growth.”

The S&P 500 scored 72.39 points to 3,973.75. The Dow added 618.34 points to 31,880.24, while the high-tech Nasdaq raised 180.66 points to 11,535.27.

Shares of smaller companies also staged a rally. Russell 2000 rose 19.50 points, or 1.1%, to 1,792.76.

Strong concerns about inflation dragged the market and kept major indexes falling. The S&P 500 is coming off its longest weekly loss streak since the 2001 dot bubble blow. It was close to falling 20% ​​from its peak earlier this year, which would have put the index at the base of 401 most workers. (k) accounts in bear market.

The impact of inflation on consumers and businesses has been a key concern of markets, along with the Federal Reserve’s attempt to stifle that impact by aggressively raising interest rates. Inflation, caused by large gaps in supply and demand, has worsened due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its impact on energy prices. Supply chains have suffered even more A recent series of blockades in China for several major cities facing rising COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, a series of disappointing earnings reports from key retailers last week raised concerns that consumers are cutting spending on a wide range of goods as they are squeezed by rising inflation.

Investors are concerned that the central bank may go too far in raising rates or move too fast, which could delay economic growth and potentially lead to a recession. On Wednesday, investors will get a more detailed view of the Fed’s decision-making process with the published minutes of the last policy-making meeting.

Wall Street will also receive several economic upgrades this week from the Department of Commerce. On Thursday, it will publish a report on gross domestic product for the first quarter, and on Friday – data on personal income and expenditure for April.

Banks made strong returns along with rising bond yields on Monday, which they are counting on to charge more yielding interest on loans. The 10-year Treasury’s yield rose to 2.86% from 2.77% on Friday at the end. Bank of America rose 5.9%.

Technology stocks have also made some heavy. Apple went up by 4% and Microsoft – by 3.2%. Over the past few weeks, this sector has been volatile and has caused many recent major market fluctuations.

VMware rose 24.8% after reports that chipmaker Broadcom is offering to buy a cloud computing company. JPMorgan Chase jumped 6.2% after giving investors an encouraging update on its financial forecasts.

Veiga reports from Los Angeles.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed without permission.