Investors may be scratching their heads at the resiliency shown by the major U.S. stock indices as of late. Despite the Delta variant unleashing renewed fears of economic shutdowns globally and other factors that should be dampening markets – supply chain issues, labor and semiconductor shortages, inflation – stocks remain at all-time-highs.
“Markets climb that wall of worry,” said the Network’s own Scott Connor. The S&P 500 (SPX) hit an intraday high in Monday’s session, ending the day up 0.85% while the Nasdaq-100 (NDX) settled 1.46% higher at a record close. Even the indices not at records made headway Monday: the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. ($DJI) rose 0.6% and the small-cap Russell 2000 (RUT) gained 1.88%.
It seems anything coronavirus-related still holds the most weight in markets right now as the gains were spurred by the FDA’s granting full approval of its first COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX). In addition to vaccine makers, reopening stocks within the travel and restaurant industries led Monday’s rally as well as energy stocks. Crude oil futures (/CL) put an end to their longest losing streak since 2019, notching their biggest daily percentage gain since March.
That resulted in shares of Diamondback (NASDAQ:FANG) and Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN) gaining about 6%, while Occidental Petroleum (OXY) rose nearly 7% Monday.
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