Investing.com – Wall Street inched forward on Monday as technology stocks surged and investors remained on edge over political uncertainty in the U.S. and Germany.
The S&P 500 rose four points or 0.16% as of 11:11 AM ET (4:11 PM GMT) while the Dow composite surged 93 points or 0.40%. Tech heavy NASDAQ Composite increased seven points or 0.11%.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that he foresaw the tax reform bill being sent to President Donald Trump by the end of 2017, but concerns remain about what whether the bill will be finalized. The House passed its version of the tax bill on Thursday and now has to go through the Senate.
Meanwhile in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government failed to form a three-way government coalition in Parliament, sparking concern that a new election could be called.
Among the biggest gainers were Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ:CSCO), which rose 1.22% and Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), which was up 2.38%. Computer manufacturing firm IBM (NYSE:IBM) increased 1.64% and payment processor Square (NYSE:SQ) jumped 3.23%.
Elsewhere General Electric (NYSE:GE) slumped 1.67% and luxury car maker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) slipped 2.40% while retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) fell 1.55%.
In Europe markets rallied after falling in morning trading. In Germany the DAX surged 85 points or 0.66% while France’s CAC 40 increased 29 points or 0.54% and in London the FTSE 100 inched forward 13 points or 0.18%. Spain’s IBEX 35 rose 17 points or 0.18%. Meanwhile the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 was up 18 and a half points or 0.52%.
In commodities, gold futures fell 0.80% to $1,286.34 a troy ounce while crude oil futures dipped 1.75% to $55.72 a barrel. The U.S dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.24% to 93.83.