By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were boosted by technology while crude oil prices fell on Monday as investors, amid light Columbus Day trading, looked for promised Chinese stimulus and prepared for a series of high-profile corporate wins.
Large-cap tech-adjacent growth stocks boosted the Nasdaq and Nasdaq sharply, setting the latter for a new closing record, while the blue-chip Dow was barely positive, settling near Friday's all-time closing high .
“We have good momentum behind stocks in general, the major indexes hit all-time highs,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research in New York.
Oil prices fell and the dollar held steady as bad news from China stoked fears of weakening global demand.
Beijing on Saturday pledged to “significantly increase” debt as it seeks to breathe life into the world's second-largest economy, but disappointed investors with its lack of details.
This was followed on Monday by a report showing a sharp slowdown in Chinese export growth that missed expectations by a wide margin, underscoring the need for strong stimulus.
“China is going through economic difficulties,” Stovall added. “Oil prices are another sign of a lack of confidence that China will be able to pull itself through, mainly because the details of the stimulus are so vague.”
The bond market was closed in observance of Columbus Day and there were no earnings reports or economic data to influence investor sentiment.
That will change later in the week, with retail sales, industrial production and housing starts/building permits among the scheduled data releases.
High-profile earnings available for the rest of the week include Bank of America (N:), citi group (N:), Goldman Sachs (N:), Morgan Stanley (N:), Netflix (O:), along with a host of industrial and healthcare names.
The S&P 500 rose 40.75 points, or 0.70%, to 5,855.78 and the S&P 500 rose 180.90 points, or 0.99%, to 18,524.37.
European stocks rose slightly as investors digested China's stimulus plans and focused on earnings season and the European Central Bank's (ECB) monetary policy meeting scheduled for later this week.
MSCI's gauge of global stocks rose 3.69 points, or 0.43%, to 856.42.
The index rose 0.45%, while the broad European index rose 10.11 points, or 0.49%.
Emerging market stocks fell 0.10 points, or 0.01%, to 1,159.46. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed up 0.01% at 613.70, while rising 224.91 points, or 0.57%, to 39,605.80.
The dollar approached recent highs against a basket of global currencies as the euro fell ahead of the ECB meeting.
The , which measures the dollar against a basket of currencies that includes the yen and euro, rose 0.2% to 103.25, and the euro fell 0.28% to $1.0906.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.54% to 149.94.
Crude oil prices fell as China's economic uncertainties and the fifth consecutive drop in Chinese oil imports cast doubt on global demand.
fell 2.05% to $73.98 a barrel and fell to $77.48 a barrel, down 1.97% on the day.
Gold retreated from a one-week high as investor risk appetite improved.
fell 0.27% to $2,649.50 an ounce. The United States fell 0.09% to $2,655.30 an ounce.
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