Stocks rally on stimulus hopes
Investors placed their bets Monday on more government stimulus, casting aside concerns about rising cases of COVID-19 and tensions between the U.S. and China.
They also bet on shares of big cap tech titans like Apple and Amazon before they report their earnings this week. That helped push the Nasdaq up 1.7% and outperform the S&P 500's three-quarter percent gain and Dow's 0.4% rise.
Despite the optimism expressed by equity investors, others, who worried the government's upcoming virus-aid package would be insufficient to support the economy, bought safe-haven assets, driving up the price of gold to an all-time high.
Spartan Capital Securities chief market economist Peter Cardillo:
"Has the market gotten ahead of itself? Probably. No question about it. Should investors be cautious? Absolutely."
Back on Wall Street, Moderna shares jumped 9%. On Monday, the biotech company started late-stage testing of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate on 30,000 adults.
Hasbro shares dropped 7%. The pandemic drove up demand for Hasbro's board games like "Scrabble" but also forced the toymaker to shut down production in several countries, and the resulting shortages helped drive quarterly revenue down nearly 13%.
