The Dow and Nasdaq just registered their best day in 4 months and the S&P 500 posted its best daily gain in 9 months
U.S. stock benchmarks surged on Monday, with the main equity indexes booking their best gains in months as brewing jitters over rising bond yields, and the impact of escalating borrowing costs, were apparently overshadowed by bullish enthusiasm to start trading in March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up by about 600 points, or nearly 2%, to around 31,535, while the technology-heaviny Nasdaq Composite Index , sensitive to rising bond yields, finished up 3% to 13,589, on a preliminary basis, marking the best day for those pair of stock indexes since early November, according to FactSet data. The biggest contributor to the Dow's gains was Boeing Co. . Meanwhile, the S&P 500 index finished up 2.4% to log its sharpest one-day gain since June 5. The advance for stocks came against the backdrop of apparent enthusiasm for a rebound in the economy, aided by new vaccines, including Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine that was authorized for emergency use over the weekend by public-health authorities. Last week's action was marked by nervousness about a rapid run-up in government bond yields, which were forcing investors to reassess their riskier stock bets against risk-free haven bonds. The 10-year Treasury note was yielding 1.43% Monday afternoon, down from an intraday peak on Friday at around 1.55%.
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