By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs Monday as a rally in Facebook and chip stocks pushed tech higher and offset an oil-led slump in energy ahead of a meeting by major oil producing nations later this week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to another record intraday high of 4,290.61. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.44%, or 150 points, the Nasdaq was up 0.98% to a record of 14,500.51.
Tech rallied strongly led by Facebook after a federal court dismissed the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against the social media giant. The FTC was seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could have forced Facebook to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, and require that Facebook seek prior notice and approval for future mergers and acquisitions.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) closed more than 4% higher taking its market cap above $1 trillion for the first time ever. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) also ended up.
Tech was also pushed higher by a jump in chip stocks with Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) leading the charge, jumping 5%. Nvidia reportedly received support for its planned $40 billion takeover of ARM from the latter’s customers including Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO).
Energy slipped more than 3% as oil prices came under pressure ahead of the OPEC meeting Thursday. Major oil producers are expected to decide to increase production by 500,000 barrels per day from August, following the planned production hike by 800,000 barrels per day in July.
”If OPEC+ signals its willingness to produce more oil in the future, the price rally on the oil market should come to an end for the time being,” Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) said in a note.
Financials were one of the biggest decliners on the day following a slump in regional banks as falling bond yields soured investor sentiment on the sector.
People’s United Financial (NASDAQ:PBCT), Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF) and Huntington Bancshares (NASDAQ:HBAN) led the downside, with the latter lower by 2%.
Lower interest rates hurt the return on interest that banks earn from their loan products, or net interest margin – the difference between the interest income generated by banks and the amount of interest paid out to depositors.
In aftermarket hours, bank stocks climbed, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) among the highlights after doubling its quarterly dividend and announcing a new $12 billion stock buyback.
The fall in U.S. government bond yields boosted demand for consumer staples and utilities, commonly used as a bond proxy given the sector’s steady dividends.
Boeing (NYSE:BA), closed 3% lower, dragging the broader industrials sector lower on a CNBC report, citing a letter from a Federal Aviation Administration official to Boeing, suggesting the aircraft maker is unlikely to receive certification for its 777X long-range aircraft until mid-to-late 2023 at the earliest.
In other news, Beachbody closed nearly 7% higher after making its trading debut on Monday.