Stock Market Today: Dow, S&P 500 close at record as big tech continues stampede

© Reuters.

Investing.com — The Dow and S&P 500 rallied to a record close Monday, as investors added to bullish bets on tech ahead of earnings from several mega-cap tech companies, with key macro economic events including Federal Reserve policy-setting meeting and monthly jobs report due later this week.

By 16:00 ET (21:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 224 points, or 0.6%, S&P 500 0.8% higher and NASDAQ Composite climbed 1.1%.

Tech continues to reign supreme with earnings now in focus

Tech stocks continued to rack up gains as the countdown to the busiest week of the earnings season, with 19% of the S&P 500 including five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks

This week marks the busiest week of the earnings season, with 19% of the S&P 500 including five of the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks set to report earnings.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are due to report results on Tuesday, followed by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) on Thursday, with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) closing out the week on Friday.

SoFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:SOFI), meanwhile, was also big winner on the earnings stage, surging 20% after its fourth-quarter results topped Wall Street estimates.

On the flip side, iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) slumped 9% after the robot maker and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced they mutually agreed to terminate their acquisition deal.

Treasury lowers borrowing forecast for Q1

The positive start to the week for tech was helped by a dip in Treasury yields as concerns about the level of Treasury borrowing were eased somewhat after the U.S. Treasury lowered its forecast for federal borrowing, expecting to borrow $760 billion from a prior forecast of $816B.

The announcement comes ahead of the refunding announcement due Wednesday, which details the Treasury’s plans for note and bond sales.

Fed meeting, macro data loom large

The Federal Reserve‘s two-day policy-setting meeting gets underway on Tuesday, but while the expectations for a unchanged a decision on rates is priced-in, investors will keen for a fresh update or clues on rate cuts.

In the weeks, leading up to the Fed decision, investors have reined in their expectations for a March cut as signs of ongoing strength in the economy has lessen the need for speed on rate cuts.

Some on Wall Street are sticking to their bets of a March cut and are closely watching remarks from the Fed that suggests incoming economic data will continue to drive policy decisions.

“The main thing we want to see to maintain our conviction that the first rate cut comes at the March FOMC meeting is a data dependent message, and that March is not completely ruled out in the press conference,” UBS said in a recent note.

The widely-watched monthly payrolls report is scheduled for Friday, and ahead of that comes JOLTS job openings and consumer confidence on Tuesday, followed a day later by a report on private sector payrolls and weekly data on initial jobless claims on Thursday.

Consumer stocks get boost as Tesla rebounds, cruise stocks shine

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) rose 3% as its recent malaise appears to have attracted dip buyers, though sentiment on the stocks remains fragile following the electric vehicle maker’s recent quarterly results that missed Wall Street estimates.

Cruise stocks including Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL), Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd (NYSE:NCLH), and Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL) also lifted consumer stocks as investors, with the latter up nearly 4%.

(Peter Nurse, Oliver Gray contributed to this article.)

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