Prior to the release of two manufacturing indexes on Monday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased. As a result of the firm reporting a record number of car deliveries in the first quarter but still missing projections, Tesla shares fell.
This week is expected to provide a flood of economic statistics, none more important than the Labor Department’s March jobs report, which is coming out on Friday.
The ISM manufacturing index will be released at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, while the PMI manufacturing index for March will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET. Wall Street anticipates the PMI to hit 49.3, but the ISM manufacturing index to drop to 47.5 in March from February’s reading of 47.7.
The February job openings and labor turnover survey from the Labor Department is scheduled to be released on Tuesday later this week. On Wednesday at 10 a.m., the ISM service-sector activity barometer will be released.
In a $21 billion merger, World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE) and UFC parent company Endeavor Group (EDR) will combine. According to a press statement from the firms, the transaction is worth $9.3 billion for WWE and $12.1 billion for UFC. As EDR stock increased 1%, WWE stock fell 8.8%.
C3.ai (NYSE: AI) attempted to build on Friday’s breakthrough gains, but it lost 1% in early Monday morning trade as Tesla (TSLA), the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, lost more than 3%. Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT), two of the Dow Jones technology titans, fell after the start of today’s stock market.
The top stocks to purchase and keep an eye on given the current market strength include IBD Leaderboard stocks Axon Enterprise (AXON), Skyline (SKY), and Workday (WDAY), as well as Dow Jones stocks Cisco Systems (CSCO), Microsoft, and Nike (NKE).
Last week’s Stocks Approaching A Buy Zone post included a discussion of Cisco. Microsoft, Skyline, and Axon were all recently featured as IBD Stock Of The Day topics.
Dow Jones Up; S&P 500, Nasdaq Down After Opening Bell
The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 0.4% after the opening bell on Monday, while the S&P 500 decreased by 0.1%. The heavily tech-focused Nasdaq composite fell 0.6% in morning trading.
The Nasdaq 100 tracker Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) both had early Monday declines among U.S. exchange-traded funds.
On Monday, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield increased a little to 3.5%. The 10-year yield recently temporarily dipped to its lowest point since mid-September.
After strong gains last week, U.S. oil prices soared on Monday morning as West Texas Intermediate futures traded at $81 a barrel, up more than 6%. In an unexpected decision over the weekend, OPEC+ said it will reduce its daily output by more than a million barrels beginning next month.
Stock Market Rally
The NASDAQ composite gained 1.7% on Friday, bringing its weekly gain to an astounding 3.4%. The S&P 500 came close following with a daily gain of 1.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average then increased by 1.3%.
The Big Picture column on Friday said, “After Wednesday’s positive price movement, IBD revised its view for the stock market to reflect a “confirmed upswing,” and advised investors to seek for chances to increase their market exposure. During a follow-through day, it becomes reasonable to expose them to a level of 20% to 40%.”
