Tech Stocks Help Lead Continued Upward Move On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Extending the strong upward move seen over the two previous sessions, stocks moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. The major averages all moved to the upside on the day following the mixed performance seen in the previous week.

The major averages finished the day off their highs of the session but still firmly in positive territory. The Dow rose 227.79 points or 0.5 percent to 48,362.68, the Nasdaq climbed 121.21 points or 0.5 percent to 23,428.83 and the S&P 500 advanced 43.99 points or 0.6 percent to 6,878.49.

The markets continued to benefit from strength among technology stocks, which helped lead the way higher last Thursday and Friday.

Shares of Oracle (ORCL) surged by 3.3 percent after Wells Fargo reiterated its Overweight rating on the software giant's stock.

AI darling and market leader Nvidia (NVDA) also saw further upside after a report from Reuters said the company has told Chinese clients it aims to start shipping its second-most powerful AI chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February.

Overall trading activity appeared somewhat subdued, however, with a lack of major U.S. economic data keeping some traders on the sidelines.

Some traders may also be away from their desks as they look to get a head start on the Christmas Day holiday on Thursday.

Reports on durable goods orders, third quarter GDP, industrial production and consumer confidence are still likely to attract attention on Tuesday.

Sector News

Gold stocks saw substantial strength as the price of the precious metal soared to new record highs driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.3 percent to a record closing high.

Significant strength was also visible among airline stocks, as reflected by the 1.7 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Airline Index.

Steel, networking and telecom stocks also saw notable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index surged by 1.8 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index advanced by 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets moved to the downside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index slid by 0.4 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index fell by 0.3 percent and the German DAX Index edged down by less than a tenth of a percent.

In the bond market, treasuries extended the downward move seen during last Friday's session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 1.8 basis points to 4.169 percent.