(RTTNews) - Following the pullback seen last week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has shown a significant move back to the upside during trading on Monday. The S&P 500 has also climbed into positive territory, while the Dow is posting a modest loss.
The Dow has climbed well off its early lows, but the blue chip index remains down 57.68 points or 0.2 percent at 26,614.27. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq is up 155.86 points or 1.5 percent at 10,659.05 and the S&P 500 is up 12.11 points or 0.4 percent at 3,236.84.
The strong upward move by the Nasdaq comes as traders cycle back into big-name tech stocks after the index slumped by 1.1 percent last week.
Shares of Amazon (AMZN) have spiked by 5.3 percent after Goldman Sachs and Jefferies both raised their price targets for the online retail giant to $3,800 per share.
Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) and software giant Microsoft (MSFT) are also posting notable gains, with both surging up by 2.6 percent.
The jump by Microsoft is also contributing to significant strength in the software sector, with the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index soaring by 2.8 percent.
Gold stocks have also moved sharply higher over the course of the session, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 2.8 percent. The index reached a seven-year intraday high earlier in the day.
The rally by gold stocks comes amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for August delivery climbing $7.10 to $1,817.10 an ounce.
Retail, oil service, and biotechnology stocks are also seeing considerable strength in mid-day trading, while substantial weakness remains visible among airline and tobacco stocks.
The drop by the Dow partly reflects notable losses by Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Dow Inc. (DOW) and 3M (MMM).
Overall trading activity is somewhat subdued as traders continue to weigh the recent surge in coronavirus cases in certain states against continued optimism about the economic outlook.
Florida reported 12,523 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, reflecting the fifth consecutive day the state reported more than new 10,000 infections.
Positive results from trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines by Oxford University and AstraZeneca (AZN) and Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) have helped offset any negative sentiment generated by the latest news.
A lack of major U.S. economic data may be keeping some traders on the sidelines as they wait for more upbeat news to support their unrelenting optimism.
Theeconomic calendarremains relatively light throughout the week, although traders are likely to keep an eye on the weekly jobless claims report as well as data on new and existing home sales.
Earnings news may take the spotlight in the coming days, with IBM Corp. (IBM), Coca-Cola (KO), Microsoft (MSFT), AT&T (T), Twitter (TWTR), and Intel (INTC) among a slew of companies due to report their quarterly results.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index soared by 3.1 percent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index fell by 0.5 percent.
The major European markets also turned mixed on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index slid by 0.5 percent, the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.5 percent and the German DAX Index jumped by 1 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have pulled back off their best levels but continue to see modest strength. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 1.3 basis points at 0.615 percent.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
