Spencer Platt
U.S. stocks on Monday extended a three-week win streak that has seen the benchmark S&P 500 (SP500) post gains in every day of November so far barring two.
Sentiment was helped after a closely-watched 20-year Treasury auction traded through. Longer-end yields ticked lower in reaction.
This week will be quiet in terms of news flow as the bulk of the third quarter earnings season is done, though Nvidia’s results on Tuesday will garner significant attention. The economic calendar is largely empty and the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday could also contribute to light volume.
“With inflation moderating rapidly and employment numbers holding up alright, investors have turned ebullient going into Thanksgiving,” Ahan Vashi, investing group leader of The Quantamental Investor, told Seeking Alpha.
The Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) led gains among the main indexes, rising 1.13% to end at 14,284.53 points. The tech-heavy index was also buoyed by Microsoft (MSFT) which hit a record high after the tech giant brought on former OpenAI co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to lead a new advanced artificial intelligence team. The hiring came after a shock move by OpenAI’s board on Friday to oust Altman as top boss.
The S&P 500 (SP500) climbed 0.74% to settle at 4,547.38 points, while the blue-chip Dow (DJI) added 0.58% to finish at 35,151.04 points. The former is coming off its best weekly win-streak since late July, largely driven by a general market consensus that the Federal Reserve is done hiking interest rates.
“The weekend drama at OpenAI turned into a massive coup for Microsoft (MSFT), with Sam Altman joining the tech conglomerate to head its new AI Research team. Artificial intelligence has been the hot theme in tech for the last year, and this weekend’s surprising news seems to have triggered a fresh wave of buying across the tech sector, which led today’s rally,” Vashi added.
Of the 11 S&P sectors, nine ended in the green, led by Technology. Utilities and Consumer Staples were the two losers.
Longer-end Treasury yields inched lower, after the $16B 20-year note auction dew a high yield of 4.78% versus the when issued yield of 4.79%. The results indicated solid demand and was in stark contrast to the $24B 30-year auction eleven days ago that tailed by its biggest margin ever.
The 30-year yield (US30Y) was down 3 basis points to 4.57%, while the 10-year yield (US10Y) was down 2 basis points to 4.42%. The shorter-end more rate-sensitive 2-year yield (US2Y) was up 1 basis point to 4.92%.
See how Treasury yields have done across the curve at the Seeking Alpha bond page.
Turning back to equities, U.S.-listed Argentinian stocks grabbed some of the spotlight on Monday, staging a broad-based advance after far-right libertarian Javier Milei won the country’s presidential election on Sunday. The Global X MSCI Argentina ETF (ARGT) surged. Meanwhile, U.S.-listed shares of YPF (YPF) soared after Milei’s victory sparked speculation that the state-owned energy firm could benefit from economic reforms.
In other active movers, Boeing (BA) ended among the top percentage gainers on the S&P 500 (SP500), after the planemaker was upgraded by Deutsche Bank on the expectation of higher cash flow from rising aircraft deliveries.