U.S. stocks ended fractionally higher on Monday, as investors awaited another busy week of earnings and economic data, including a Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq each closed up about 0.3 percent.
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Among the day's biggest movers was Tesla, which popped 15 percent after the automaker cleared a major hurdle in deploying its advanced self-driving technology in China. CEO Elon Musk jetted to Beijing over the weekend for a surprise visit with Premier Li Qiang, who reports directly to Xi Jinping. The trip was a success as Li called Tesla a "successful model" for collaboration between the two superpowers. Musk left with Beijing's blessing to starting rolling out "Full Self-Driving" software in the country. Separately, Tesla struck a deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu to integrate its advanced mapping and navigation data into its autonomous driving tech.
Shares of Apple also jumped more than 2 percent after an analyst upgrade. The stock has been under pressure of late — down some 6 percent on the year — amid concerns of a slowdown in iPhone sales in China and less-than-exuberant early sales of its latest product, the Vision Pro. Apple reports earnings on Thursday.
Domino's Pizza was another big winner in an otherwise uneventful trading day. Shares of the delivery giant were up 6 percent after a strong earnings report showed a 5.6 percent gain in same-store sales, well above expectations. Same-store sales is a crucial metric for retailers, showing the performance of an individual location relative to the same period in the prior year.
Shares of Donald Trump's media company, Trump Media & Technology Group, were up more than 10%, despite no underlying news propelling the stock. The company, which runs the former president's preferred social media platform Truth Social, has been on a tear, more than doubling in the last two weeks (and giving the presumptive Republican nominee a $1 billion windfall in the process).
Tuesday will bring closely watched earnings reports from Amazon, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Starbucks — all companies that give indications about the health of consumer spending. Pharma giant Eli Lilly also reports Tuesday, while its European rival in the booming obesity drug space Novo Nordisk is due Friday. Shares of both those companies are up about 25 percent this year.
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But the week's biggest event is shaping up to be Wednesday's Fed decision. Even though the consensus is that the central bank will keep interest rates unchanged, investors will be closely watching Fed Chair Jerome Powell's post-decision press conference for clues on whether recent inflation data, showing prices remain stubbornly above the Fed's target, might influence monetary policy in the coming months.
Rounding out the week: the April jobs report, scheduled for release Friday morning. The March report came in surprisingly hot, with more than 300,000 jobs added for the month. Economists expect a still-robust 250,000 jobs added in April, and will be watching to see whether there were revisions to that surprising March headline number.
Earnings Highlights To Watch This Week
- Tuesday: Amazon, Eli Lilly, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Starbucks, Stellantis, Mondelez, PayPal, 3M
- Wednesday: Mastercard, Pfizer, CVS, Marriott, DoorDash, The Kraft Heinz Company, Pizza Hut and KFC parent Yum! Brands, eBay
- Thursday: Apple, pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, Shell, Moderna
- Friday: Berkshire Hathaway, AMC
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Carlo Versano is a Newsweek editor based in New York, covering live and breaking news. He is an Emmy-winning journalist ... Read more
