BUSINESS BRIEFS
Tech stocks lead rally after markets fall early
Stocks shook off an early stumble and scratched out small gains Monday on Wall Street as the market’s momentum slows following its best month in decades.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% and narrowly avoided what would have been its first three-day losing streak in nearly two months. The Dow managed a 0.1% gain, while the Nasdaq rose 1.2%.
When U.S. trading opened, the market appeared set for a uniformly depressing day. The S&P 500 dove 1.2% almost immediately, with airlines sinking particularly sharply after famed investor Warren Buffett said he’d dumped all his shares in the four biggest U.S. carriers. A ramping up of tensions between the White House and China over the origins and handling of the coronavirus pandemic was also weighing on markets around the world.
For imperiled airlines, it keeps getting worse
Air travel has come to almost a complete standstill and industry executives believe the industry could shrink. The situation continues to worsen.
Billionaire Warren Buffett said over the weekend that he had unloaded his company’s entire stake in major U.S. airlines, believing he was mistaken in his valuation of the carriers. Shares of American, Delta and United Continental plunged between 13% and 14% Monday. Southwest slid 9%.
Shareholders of the low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle approved a plan to rescue the company by swapping debt for equity so that it might access some of the government’s guarantees worth $290 million.
The carrier has already laid off 90% of its workforce.