Big Tech sparks Wall Street’s recovery

Stock market rallies, rebounds from pullback that opened ’24

NEW YORK — Wall Street rallied Monday to claw back almost all the losses from its slow start to the year.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.4 percent to pull within 0.7 percent of its all-time high set two years ago. It’s a return of momentum for Wall Street’s main measure of health, which was coming off its first losing week in the last 10.

The Nasdaq composite shot 2.2 percent higher for its best day in eight weeks, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged the market with a more modest gain of 0.6 percent, or 216 points.

Boeing dragged on the Dow in its first trading after one of its jets suffered an inflight blowout over Oregon. It fell 8 percent. Spirit Aerosystems, which builds fuselages and other parts for Boeing, lost 11.1 percent.

Stocks of oil-and-gas companies were also heavy weights after Saudi Arabia gave indications of potentially weak demand for crude. Exxon Mobil fell 1.7 percent, and Marathon Oil lost 2.7 percent as a barrel of U.S. crude tumbled $3.04 to $70.77.

But the rest of Wall Street largely climbed as easing Treasury yields relaxed the pressure on the stock market.

Big Tech stocks led the way. They were the main reason for Wall Street’s big gains last year, when excitement around artificial-intelligence technology made just a handful responsible for most of the S&P 500’s returns. But they stumbled last week as markets broadly regressed.

Nvidia rose 6.4 percent after announcing several Ai-related products. Apple, meanwhile, rose 2.4 percent to bounce back from its worst week since September. They were the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, along with Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet.

More earnings results will be arriving at the end of the week. Delta Air Lines, Jpmorgan Chase and Unitedhealth Group will be among the companies kicking off the S&P 500’s reporting season on Friday for the final three months of 2023.

The highlight of the week may be Thursday’s release of the latest inflation data for U.S. consumers. A cooldown there has ignited hope on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve will soon see enough improvement to not only halt its hikes to interest rates but to begin cutting them.

All told Monday, the S&P 500 rose 66.30 points to 4,763.54. The Dow gained 216.90 to 37,683.01, and the Nasdaq jumped 319.70 to 14,843.77.