Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rebounded on Monday following one of its worst days of the year at last week's close as a strong jobs reported exacerbated worries that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates as early as June.
Monday's gain coincided with the six-year anniversary of a bull market, following the Financial Crisis of 2008.
After dropping nearly 300 points on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.78 % or 138.94 points to 17,995.72. Led by gains in the healthcare and industrial sector, the S&P 500 rose 0.39% or 8.17 points to 2,078.43. The NASDAQ Composite index also rose slightly, increasing 0.31% or 15.07 to 4,942.44.
In a highly-anticipated event on Monday afternoon, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched its new iWatch at a glitzy media event in California. Calling the iWatch, the company's "most personal device ever," Apple CEO Tim Cook said the watch will be available on April 24 for a starting price of $349. Apple gained 2.85 or 2.25% to 129.45 shortly after Cook's announcement, before falling back to 127.14, up 0.54 or 0.43% at Monday's close.
In other technology news, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) dropped 7.59% or 0.81 to 9.86 after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) downgraded the stock to sell. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), meanwhile, gained 0.49 or 1.16% to 42.85 amid reports of a patent infringement lawsuit the company is filing against Kyocera Corporation (NYSE:KYO).
Elsewhere, QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM) gained 1.20 or 1.68% to 72.71 following the announcement of a $15 billion stock buyback program -- $10 billion of which it will purchase over the next 12 months. The company is considering issuing debt to finance the program, but announced it has $31.6 billion in cash on hand if needed.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) also rose by more than 3% on Monday, after announcing a $5 billion stock buyback program of its own. The Detroit-based multinational automaker gained 1.12 points to close at 37.66.
The top performer on the Dow Jones Industrial Average was United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), after the Hartford-based high-tech manufacturer and defense contractor reported an 8.8% annualized rate of return. The worst performer on the Dow, meanwhile, was Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) (NYSE:BA) which dropped 0.48 or 1.45% to 32.71.
The biggest performer on the NASDAQ Composite index was RTI International Metals Inc (NYSE:RTI), which gained 39.30% or 10.72 to 38.00 after the titanium specialty metals manufacturer was acquired by Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA). The deal is based on RTI shareholders gaining 2.83 shares of Alcoa stock for each share of RTI. Alcoa fell 5.3% or 0.78 to 13.7 on Monday. The worst performer was AcelRx Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:ACRX), which dropped 37.03% or 3.24 to 5.51.