Shortly after the opening, the major U.S. stock indexes are trading higher, with the NASDAQ leading the way with a 1% increase. This early price action indicates that investors are looking for bargains, with many buying up shares that have been beaten down after the main benchmarks suffered their worst weekly decline of the year due to concerns over aggressive Fed interest rate hikes. As of 14:53 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading at 33068.81, up 251.89 or 0.77%. The S&P 500 Index is at 4004.24, up 34.20 or 0.86%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite is trading at 11514.87, up 119.93 or 1.05%.
In addition to bargain hunting, investors are also buying up Tesla shares in anticipation of the company’s upcoming conference call, as there is relatively little other news driving the markets on Monday.
On Monday, stocks were lifted by a dip in Treasury yields, which occurred after the 2-year rate hit its highest level since July 2007. The previous week, the major averages on Wall Street suffered their biggest losses of the year due to concerns over persistent monetary policy tightening from the U.S. Federal Reserve, driven by the prospect of sticky inflation.
Durable Goods Orders Post Steep Decline in January
The stocks’ early gains remained unaffected by the mixed data showing a tumble in durable goods orders in January. The report revealed that sales of long-lasting goods such as appliances, TVs, and automobiles fell 4.5% for the month, which was worse than the estimated 3.6% decline by Dow Jones. This came after a 5.1% increase in December. Excluding transportation, new orders increased by 0.7%. However, excluding defense, orders were down 5.1%. The significant decline was propelled by a 13.3% fall in transportation.
NASDAQ Sector Performance
All five major sectors in the NASDAQ Composite Index are moving higher on Monday.
- Communications +21.23%.
- Energy +2.11%.
- Consumer Discretionary +1.74%.
- Others +1.34%.
- Utilities +1.33%.
Market Moving NASDAQ Composite Stocks
- Tesla is trading $206.57, up 4.92%
- Baidu is trading $138.07, up 4.19%
- Autodesk is trading $198.39, up 3.04%
- Netflix is trading $326.27, up 2.88%
- ASML is trading $626.06, up 1.73%
Expectations are high among investors ahead of Tesla’s analysts call, with many hoping for significant announcements from the electric vehicle maker.
Analysts are anticipating that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk will unveil his master plan for an affordable electric car at an upcoming investor meeting. Musk has been teasing the idea for years and investors are hoping he will provide more details on how he plans to make it a reality and the financial implications for the company. The announcement could have a significant impact on the electric car industry as a whole.
