- The Nasdaq jumped more than 1.5% on Monday despite trending lower for most of the day as interest rates surged.
- The US 10-year Treasury yield hit 3.00% for the first time since 2018 as the Fed is set to raise interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday.
- First-quarter earnings results continue to roll-in, and 77% of companies that have reported so far have beaten profit estimates.
US stocks whipsawed on Monday as investors digested surging interest rates, first-quarter earnings results, and brace for a Federal Reserve rate decision later this week.
The S&P 500 led stocks lower for much of the day, falling as much as 1% before investors began to buy the dip and push the broader market higher near the end of the day. The Nasdaq finished up by nearly 2%.
The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, with an interest rate decision to be revealed at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Market participants expect Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to announce an increase to the federal funds rate of 50 basis points, just two months after it made its first 25-basis-point hike of the cycle in a bid to tame inflation. The 10-year US Treasury yield hit 3.00% for the first time since 2018 on Monday.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Monday:
- S&P 500: 4,155.38, up 0.57%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,061.50, up 0.26% (84.29 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 12,536.02, up 1.63%
Meanwhile, first-quarter earnings continue to roll in, with about 55% of S&P 500 companies having already reported results. Of those companies, 77% are beating profit estimates by a median of 8%. Additionally, 69% of those companies are beating revenue estimates by a median of 4%, according to Fundstrat.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway held its annual shareholder meeting over the weekend, and Insider's Theron Mohamed traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, to document the event.
The $785 billion conglomerate revealed that it bought a net $41 billion in stocks last quarter, while slowing down the pace of its own share repurchases. Clearly, Buffett still sees opportunity in the stock market despite the recent volatility.
Berkshire purchased shares of Activision Blizzard after Microsoft announced its proposed acquisition in a merger arbitrage play, and it also increased its position in Apple, which by far represents its largest stock portfolio holding.
Despite losing more than $2 billion on its position, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest continues to buy shares of Teladoc after its nearly 50% earnings-driven implosion last week. The innovation-focused investor bought more than 600,000 shares of the tele-medicine company across its ETFs on Thursday and reiterated a bullish view on the company in an e-mail to investors.
Goldman Sachs' traders recorded 32 separate $100 million-revenue days during the first quarter of this year, the bank said Monday in a regulatory filing. That's good for about half the total trading days in the three months up to March — Goldman's best run since 2011, Bloomberg data shows.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose as much as much as 0.85% to $105.58 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped as much as 0.87% to $108.07.
Bitcoin fell 0.30% to $38,582. Ether prices rose 0.13% to $2,845.
Gold fell as much as 2.58% to $1,863.20 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury added seven basis points to 3.0%.