Monday August 8, 2022

// August 8th, 2022 // Daily News

Stocks open higher as Wall Street looks to build on three weeks of gains for S&P 500

U.S. stocks point to positive open following S&P 500′s third straight weekly gain

Stocks rose on Monday morning, following the S&P 500′s third straight weekly gain, as investors shifted focus to a key inflation report this week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 215 points or 0.7%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively. The gains came despite Nvidia announcing weak revenue for the second quarter, putting pressure on semiconductor stocks.

Monday’s moves follow a weekly rise for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite as a surprisingly strong monthly jobs report eased some recession fears. The resilient labor market also signaled that the economy could withstand more rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

“The stock market rally since the June 16 low looks to have legs in our view based on economic data and earnings results reported through last Friday,” Oppenheimer chief investment strategist John Stoltzfus said in a note to clients.

Some clean energy related shares gained after the Senate passed a $430 billion climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to be passed by the House later this week. The Invesco Solar ETF was higher by 4% in early trading.

A new reading for the consumer price index, slated for release Wednesday, will give investors more clarification about the central bank’s next move at its policy meeting in September. Traders are now pricing in a higher likelihood of a 0.75 percentage point hike next month, which would be the third straight increase of that magnitude.

Headline CPI, which includes energy and food, is expected to dip to 8.7% in July, from a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, according to Dow Jones estimates.