Indexes traded at session highs in afternoon trading, as the Nasdaq today led a strong rally in the current stock market and climbed back above 7500 and another key level.
XThe Nasdaq composite rose 1.8% and also bounced back above its 200-day moving average after spending two days below that price trend indicator. The S&P 500 rose almost 1.3% and also climbed back above the 200-day line.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged with a 0.6% increase, but the index would be higher if it weren't for Boeing (BA).
The aerospace company's shares plunged after an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 jetliner crashed Sunday, the second Max 8 to crash since October. Boeing pared losses but still accounted for nearly 200 points shaved off the Dow.
In fact, Boeing was the only member of the Dow 30 trading lower. The new troubles for Boeing's cornerstone single-aisle aircraft also caused some airline and related stocks to fall.
Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), the ETF that tracks the Nasdaq 100, rose 1.8% thanks to strength in major Nasdaq stocks such as Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL).
Facebook (FB) rose nearly 2% after Nomura raised the social media stock to buy from neutral and lifted the target price to 215 from 172. Analyst Mark Kelley said industry events and Nomura's own conversations indicate that Facebook's transition to its new Stories sharing feed "appears to be occurring more quickly than we expected, lessening our concern."
Volume was lower on the Nasdaq and slightly higher on the NYSE vs. the same time on Friday.
Software, Solar, Chip Stocks Higher
Software, solar energy and semiconductor industry groups led the Nasdaq's rally. Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) was the best S&P sector ETF, up more than 2%. Chip stocks rose after news that Nvidia (NVDA) outbid Intel (INTC) to acquire Mellanox Technologies (MLNX). Nvidia, which will pay $6.9 billion in cash, rose 6%; Mellanox rose more than 8%. Intel gained 2%.
The energy sector also was strong, after the price of U.S. crude climbed 1.4% to $56.87 a barrel. The Saudi oil minister said supply cuts are unlikely to end before June, while U.S. drilling activity was reported to have declined.
Leading stocks were broadly higher, with the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) up 1.7%. On the list, Atlassian (TEAM) jumped 5.4% and is in a buy area after finding support after a pullback to the 10-week moving average.
Atlassian ranks No. 2 in the IBD 50; thus, its daily and weekly charts on IBD Leaderboard get real-time annotations to identify proper buy points, sell signals and other notable chart action.
DocuSign (DOCU) broke out of a handle entry at 56.99. But a decline of nearly 50% in the base makes this a riskier entry. The relative strength line has not made a new high, which is another drawback.
HDFC Bank (HDB) broke out past the 104.60 buy point of a cup with handle. Volume was heavy in the India-based bank.
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