Stocks, riding 4-week win streak, mixed after Friday's rally
The Dow, which is looking to extend its weekly winning streak to five, ended slightly higher Monday as investors looked ahead to a key Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates later in the week and digested more deal news and political headlines.
Posting gains on the day were the blue chips and the Nasdaq composite, rising 0.1% and 0.04%, respectively. The S&P 500 lost 0.1%.
Since the market low on Feb. 11, the Dow Jones industrial average has been on a tear, putting together its best weekly winning streak since a 6-week run that ended Nov. 6. Since the low, the Dow has rallied nearly 10%, which has trimmed its year-to-date loss to just 1.2% and put it within striking distance of break even for 2016. The Dow, which was down nearly 15% from its May 2015 peak, is now off 6% from its record high.
"The week ahead will be a busy one for economic data, a crucial one for politics and an informative one for central bank policy," David Kelly, chief global strategist at JP Morgan Funds noted in a week-ahead report.
Investors have a big week ahead of them. The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday, and Wall Street will be closely monitoring the Fed's policy statement on Wednesday to see if the Fed raises interest rates at the meeting or if they plan to in coming meetings. When the market was tanking earlier this year and the news flow was negative, Wall Street had pretty much decided that rate hikes were unlikely. But since the big stock market rebound and strong incoming data in the U.S., which took recession fears off the table, investors now think a rate hike could be back on the table for 2016.
Wall Street will also be closely eyeing presidential primaries Tuesday, with key states like Florida and Ohio up for grabs. Strong showings for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and GOP leader Donald Trump could add clarity to what has been a wild political primary season.
Investors were also digesting more buyout news. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (HOT) Monday said that it has received a non-binding proposal from a consortium of companies to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Starwood for $76.00 per share in cash. Starwood already has a deal pending with Marriott International (MAR).
Chinese investors make bid for Starwood, jeopardizing Marriott deal
Skidding oil prices were also weighing on sentiment, as U.S.-produced crude was off $1.47, or 3.8%, to $37.03. A rebound oil prices has coincided with the rebound rally in stocks since mid-February.
Wall Street will also get an avalanche of fresh economic news this week, starting Tuesday. Fresh readings on retail sales, manufacturing and inflation are the key data points to watch.
In other deal news, an affiliate of Apollo Group Management plans to buy specialty grocery The Fresh Market (TFM) in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $1.4 billion, the companies said Monday. Shares of the Greensboro, N.C.-based grocery chain's shares were up 23.7% to $28.44 in afternoon trading. Fresh Market investors would receive $28.50 per share for their stock under the deal terms. The offer represents a premium of approximately 24% over the firm's $22.98 closing price on Friday, and roughly 53% over the closing price on Feb. 10, the day before initial public speculation about a potential transaction, the companies said.
Apollo Global to buy Fresh Market for $1.4B
Stocks around the globe kicked off the week higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.2% and the Shanghai composite jumped 1.8%.
In Europe, the broad Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.7%, Germany's DAX jumped 1.6% and the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.3%.
Contributing: Kevin McCoy