Tech, retail sectors send stocks higher
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose Monday as a mix of smaller U.S.-focused companies, technology giants and banks climbed. Drugmakers struggled, which limited those gains.
Retailers and smaller companies rose for the third day in a row as their latest quarterly reports have investors feeling better about the U.S. economy and the amount of shopping people are likely to do over the holidays. Technology companies rose following another deal between chipmakers, and industrial companies posted gains.
Companies that sell opioid pain medications tumbled after the government released a much higher estimate of the costs of the ongoing addiction crisis.
A White House group said the opioid drug epidemic cost the U.S. $504 billion in 2016, far larger than other recent estimates, and companies that make those pain medications traded sharply lower.
Last year a separate estimate said the crisis cost the country $78.5 billion in 2013, including lost productivity and health care and criminal justice spending. The Council of Economic Advisers said the new figure reflects the worsening crisis and that earlier figures didn’t calculate deaths or include the use of illegal drugs.
Trading was relatively light. That’s probably going to be the case throughout the week as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches and investors turn their attention to 2018. Jeff Kravetz, investment strategist for U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management, expects more gains for U.S. stocks but thinks indexes in other parts of the world will do better, as they’ve done this year.
“We’ve got developed markets working and we’ve got emerging markets working,” he said. “This is just a wonderful year for international markets after a bit of a drought.”