Tech drives stocks higher after choppy start

Big technology companies powered stocks higher on Wall Street Monday, adding to the market’s gains after a three-week winning streak.

The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent after being down 0.3 percent in the early going. Gains by technology and communication stocks and companies that rely on consumer spending outweighed losses elsewhere in the market. The rally, which gained strength in the final hour of trading, nudged the benchmark S&P 500 index to a slight gain for the year and drove the Nasdaq composite to an alltime high.

Amazon led the way higher in the S&P 500 with a 7.9 percent gain. Citrix Systems was close behind finishing 7.6 percent higher. Microsoft also helped lift the market, rising 4.3 percent. Noble Energy climbed 5.4 percent after the company agreed to be acquired by Chevron for $5 billion.

Technology and communications stocks and big e-commerce retailers such as Amazon have benefited this year as the pandemic has forced people to largely stay home and rely increasingly on the internet for shopping, and entertainment. Among the losers have been banks, airlines and cruise lines.

“Last week, you had the value trade come back for a few days,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. “The pattern seems to be that most days lately have been favoring growth over value.”

The S&P 500 gained 27.11 points to 3,251.84. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was down for most of the day, added 8.92 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 26,680.87.

The Nasdaq had its best day since the end of April. It climbed 263.90 points, or 2.5 percent, to 10,767.09. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks gave up 5.36 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,467.95.

Treasury yields were mixed, reflecting caution among investors. European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed.

Wall Street is coming off its third straight weekly gain following improvements in hiring, retail sales and other parts of the economy, along with rising hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine. Underlying it all is massive aid for the economy and the promise of nearly zero inwork terest rates from the Federal Reserve. The overall S&P 500 index has rallied back to within 4 percent of its record set in February and is back to where it was in early June.

Still, worries remain that the rise of coronavirus counts across much of the country will derail efforts to reopen businesses shut down due to the pandemic.

“Until we have more clarity around all these different issues, it wouldn’t surprise us if the market ended the year right where we are today,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.