Stock market today: US stocks climb on solid earnings and rate cut hopes
- US stocks surged on Monday amid solid first-quarter earnings reports and renewed hopes of interest rate cuts.
- Rate cut wagers grew following Friday's lighter-than-expected April jobs report.
- The futures market is now pricing in at least two interest rate cuts by the end of the year.
US stocks surged on Monday, extending gains from Friday and marking the best three-day rally of the year as investors cheered solid first-quarter earnings report and hopes for interest rate cuts were renewed.
Of the 80% of S&P 500 companies that have so far reported results, 81% are beating profit estimates by a median of 7%. Meanwhile, 61% of companies have beaten revenue estimates by a median of 4%, according to data from Fundstrat.
Importantly, most mega-cap tech companies that have held up the stock market in recent years reported solid earnings growth and reiterated their outlooks for higher sales and profits. The major company left to report results is Nvidia, which is scheduled to deliver earnings on May 22.
Meanwhile, the jolt of hope for interest rate cuts followed the Friday release of the April jobs report, which was weaker-than-expected based on economists forecasts. The US economy added 175,000 jobs last month, compared to estimates for nearly 250,000 jobs.
The futures market sees two 25-basis point interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve by the end of the year, which is an increase from the recent pricing of just one interest rate cut a week ago.
Investors will look for further clues about interest rate cuts from several Federal Reserve members this week, with nine scheduled to speak between throughout the week.
Fed President Tom Barkin said on Monday that the economy has to slow down further before interest rate cuts can happen, but markets largely didn't appear to take that as an overly hawkish view.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Monday:
- S&P 500: 5,180.74, up 1.03%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 38,852.27, up 0.46% (+176.59 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 16,349.25, up 1.19%
Here's what else happened today:
- Berkshire Hathaway released its first-quarter earnings results over the weekend, and revealed it held $189 billion in cash.
- Here's what Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett had to say at his company's annual shareholder meeting.
- Inflation is scrambling Americans' perceptions of middle-class life as rising prices weigh on consumers' purchasing power.
- Nvidia is dominating an AI-obsessed earnings season, and it hasn't even reported its results yet.
- Elon Musk said Warren Buffett should buy Tesla stock for Berkshire Hathaway, but that's probably never going to happen.
- The US government is paying $2 million per minute in interest expenses, and that number is only set to grow from here.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped 0.60% to $78.58 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 0.51% to $83.38 a barrel.
- Gold edged higher by 1.07% to $2,333.40 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield fell 2 basis points to 4.49%.
- Bitcoin edged lower by 1.46% to $63,099.