S&P 500 hits fresh closing high ahead of Fed meeting

NEW YORK — US stocks advanced on Monday as market participants looked ahead to this week’s slew of mega-cap earnings, economic data and the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting.

All three major US stock indexes advanced, with the techladen Nasdaq enjoying the largest percentage gain.

The S&P 500 notched yet another record closing high.

With the bellwether index up 3.3% so far in the first month of 2024, BlackRock raised its overall US stocks view to “overweight” from “neutral.”

A spate of earnings from highprofile tech and tech- adjacent momentum stocks waits in the wings, starting on Tuesday with Alphabet, Inc. and Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm, Inc. on Wednesday, and culminating on Thursday with Apple, Inc., Amazon.com, and Meta Platforms, Inc.

Other closely watched results include General Motors on Tuesday, Boeing Co. on Thursday, with oil supermajors Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. wrapping up the week on Friday.

The Federal Open Markets Committee is scheduled to convene on Tuesday for its two-day monetary policy meeting, at which its voting members are widely expected to leave the key Fed funds target rate unchanged at 5.25% to 5.5%.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other policy makers have warned not to expect interest rate cuts before inflation cools down to its average 2% annual target, but have also vowed to remain agile as they respond to economic data.

This week’s roster of economic reports includes the labor market, with the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, ADP, fourth-quarter employment costs, productivity, and planned layoffs, and the January employment report on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 224.02 points or 0.59% to 38,333.45. The S&P 500 gained 36.96 points or 0.76% at 4,927.93, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 172.68 points or 1.12% to 15,628.04.

Ten of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by consumer discretionary, up 1.37%, followed by a 0.97% gain in information technology.

Stocks on the NYSE scored 397 new highs and 50 new lows.

On the Nasdaq 2,975 stocks rose and 1,314 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a roughly 2.3-to-1 ratio.