Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday, as investors shrugged off recent U.S. political turmoil, shifting attention to President Donald Trump’s first trip abroad since taking office, after he signed a nearly $110 billion weapons deal with Saudi Arabia.
Defense stocks spurred a rally on Wall Street amid confirmation that the United States sealed a multibillion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, bolstering the financial outlook for U.S. companies involved in manufacturing weapons, ships and aircrafts among other military equipment.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Raytheon, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) soared to record highs.
President Trump’s first trip abroad since taking office comes against a backdrop of growing investor uncertainty over the Trump administration's ability to deliver on its initiatives to boost the economy, as Trump remained engulfed by allegations concerning links to Russia and his abrupt decision to fire former FBI chief James Comey.
The most damaging allegation – that Trump requested the-then FBI chief James Comey to stop an investigation into his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn – caused U.S. equities to post their worst day of 2017 last week, as the Dow dropped 370 points.
Investors parsed comments from Fed officials on Monday, ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve minutes, scheduled for Wednesday, for clues about future monetary policy.
Both Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari made a public appearance but the former did not speak on monetary policy while Kashkari said central bank interest policy can’t solve the all the economy’s problems.
"...We probably can't solve these problems [the disparities in the U.S. economy] with monetary policy." Kashkari said.
Fed Governor Lael Brainard is set to deliver a speech later in the day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 20,894.83, up 0.43%. The S&P 500 closed 0.52% higher while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6133.62, up 0.82%
The ‘Bulls and Bears’ on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers; Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) up 1.6% 3M Company (NYSE:MMM) up 1.4%, while UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) rose 1.2%.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) down 1%, E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) down 0.6% and Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) down 0.4%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.