A broad range of U.S. stocks rose on Monday as investors digested early indicators that the illness associated with the Omicron variant may be milder than previously thought.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, coming off four consecutive weeks of declines, jumped by more than 725 points, or 2.1 percent. The S&P 500 rose by around 1.6 percent. The Nasdaq Composite gained 1.25 percent and the small-cap Russell 2000 soared 2.6 percent.
Oil, which has declined in recent weeks as traders feared Omicron outbreaks would dampen global demand for travel, was up sharply Monday. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, rose by four percent. Brent Crude, the global benchmark, climbed by a similar amount.
All 11 sectors of the S&P rose on Monday. Energy was the best performing sector, rising more than 2.4 percent. Consumer discretionary rose by around two percent, with the hotels, leisure, and restaurants subsector jumping 4.5 percent. The consumer finance subsector rose 3.75 percent.
Visa and American Express were the second and third best performing Dow stocks, each rising by around 3.8 percent. Amgen, the biopharmaceutical gian, also saw its shares rise by around 3.8 percent. The company announced Friday that it was raising its dividend.
Shares of Nike, Verizon, and Salesforce declined.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.438 percent Monday from 1.342 percent Friday.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.