Stocks surge at Wall Street

All 11 S&P 500 sectors finished higher with gains

US stocks surged on Monday, 11 March 2019 reversing some of the losses from last week. Underpinning the broad-based advance was some reassurance from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the outperformance of mega-cap and semiconductor stocks, and the market's resilience in the face of an early 13.5% decline in shares of Boeing

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 200.64 points, or 0.8%, to 25,650.88, while the S&P 500 surged 40.23 points, or 1.5%, to 2,783.3 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 149.92 points, or 2.0%, to 7,558.06.

All 11 S&P 500 sectors finished higher with gains ranging from 0.7% (utilities) to 2.2% (information technology).

Economic data on Monday showed that In January, retail sales increased 0.2% (consensus -0.1%). Excluding autos, they rose 0.9% (consensus +0.2%). The headline strength in January, however, was offset some by downward revisions to the prior month that indicated retail sales fell 1.6% in December (prior -1.2%) and declined 2.1% excluding autos (prior -1.8%). The key takeaway from the report is that core retail sales, which exclude auto, gasoline station, building materials, and food services and drinking places sales, increased a solid 1.1%. That component factors into the goods component for personal consumption expenditures, so it will likely prompt some upgrades to Q1 GDP forecasts.

Both Apple and Facebook got sell-side upgrades for their stocks. Boeing stock plunged after the deadly crash of its Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX 8 this weekend.

Dollar index fell 1% on Monday.

Separately, total business inventories increased 0.6% in December, as expected by the consensus estimate, following an upwardly revised unchanged reading (from -0.1%) for November. Total business sales fell 1.0% after declining a downwardly revised 0.6% (from -0.3%) in November.

Crude Oil futures on Monday, 11 March 2019 marked their highest settlement so far in March, finding support from reports that Saudi Arabia planned to extend efforts to reduce crude exports.

April West Texas Intermediate crude rose 72 cents, or 1.3%, to settle at $56.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after prices rose 0.5% last week. Global benchmark May Brent crude gained 84 cents, or 1.3%, to $66.58 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, after the contract registered a weekly rise of 1% on Friday. Both front-month crude benchmarks ended the session at their highest levels this month so far.

Bullion pices ended lower at Comex on Monday, 11 March 2019. Gold futures finished lower on Monday, pulling back after bullion failed to settle above the psychologically significant $1,300 mark despite a rally late last week. Better-than-expected U.S. retail sales and business inventories data, which helped provide a boost to U.S. benchmark stock indexes, also put pressure on haven gold in Monday dealings.

April gold shed $8.20, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,291.10 an ounce after trading as high as $1,299.30 during the session. Bullion rose 1% on Friday and briefly exceeded $1,301 intraday. May silver meanwhile, fell 7.5 cents, or 0.5%, to $15.274 an ounce, after producing a 0.6% weekly climb on Friday.

U.S. Treasuries closed on a lower note, pushing yields higher across the curve. The 2-yr yield increased three basis points to 2.47%, and the 10-yr yield increased two basis points to 2.64%.

Looking ahead, investor will receive the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for February and the Consumer Price Index for February on Tuesday.

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