S&P 500, Dow Jones Close Higher; NASDAQ Ends Lower

Major U.S. stock market benchmark indexes S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher on Monday, while NASDAQ Composite Index ended lower. Stocks in the basic material, energy and healthcare sectors performed well on S&P 500 and Dow Jones. But consumer cyclical and real estate shares pulled NASDAQ lower.

The S&P 500 rose 0.27 percent to 4,192.66 on Monday. The Dow was up 0.70 percent to 34,113.23. The NASDAQ Composite Index declined 0.48 percent to 34,113.23, while the small-cap Russell 2000 grew 0.49 percent to 2,277.45.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said May 3 the economic outlook in the U.S. has “clearly brightened.” Powell also noted that the recovery has been slower for lower paid jobs.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury estimates to borrow US $463 billion in privately-held net marketable debt during the April-June quarter and US$821 billion in the July - September quarter. The Treasury borrowed US$401 billion in the January-March period and ended the quarter with a cash balance of US$1.122 trillion.

On Saturday, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported net earnings of US$11.71 billion for the first quarter, against a loss of US$49.75 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company bought back approximately US$6.6 billion shares in the quarter. Meanwhile, reports said Berkshire Hathaway's non-insurance business head Greg Abel would succeed Buffett as the company’s chairman and CEO in the future.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) agreed to sell its media businesses including Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for US$5 billion. Apollo will pay US$4.25 billion in cash to Verizon in the deal. Verizon will retain a 10 percent stake in the media company and receive preferred interests of US$750 million.

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Top Gainers

Top performers on S&P 500 were Baker Hughes Co (8.02%), Mohawk Industries Inc (7.54%), Gap Inc  (7.16%) and Nov Inc (6.35%).

Precipio Inc (171.98%), Image Sensing Systems Inc (73.47%), Euroseas Ltd (24.31%) and Top Ships Inc (23.81%) were top performers on NASDAQ.

On Dow Jones, Dow Inc (3.28%), Amgen Inc (2.40%), Chevron Corp (2.39%) and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (2.26%) gained the most.

Top Losers

Top laggards on S&P 500 were Estee Lauder Companies Inc (7.93%), Discovery Inc (4.09%), ETSY Inc. (4.06%) and ABIOMED Inc (3.77%)

Vaxart Inc (25.60%), Evelo Biosciences Inc (19.62%), Regulus Therapeutics Inc (19.42%) and Intrusion Inc (19.21%) were among the top losers on NASDAQ.

On Dow Jones, Salesforce.Com Inc (2.85%), Intel Corp (0.47%), Visa Inc (0.41%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (0.29%) were laggards.

Source: Refinitiv, S&P 500 Index on May 3.

Volume Movers

Top volume movers were Ocugen Inc (37.42M), Precipio Inc (34.18M), Farmmi Inc (28.41M), Sundial Growers Inc (17.01M), Naked Brand Group Ltd (16.77M), Vaxart Inc (16.60M), Apple Inc (15.86M), Ford Motor Co (13.13M), General Electric Co (12.87M) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (12.34M).

Futures & Commodities

Gold futures were down 0.03 percent to US$ 1,792.65 per ounce on Monday. Silver declined 0.07 percent to US$27.012 per ounce, while copper 0.02 percent to US$ 4.5252.

Brent oil futures grew 0.15 percent to US$ 67.66 per barrel and WTI crude increased 0.14 percent to US$ 64.62.

Bond Market

The 30-year Treasury bond yields were down 0.23 percent on Monday to 2.284 while the 10-year bond yields were down 0.41percent to 1.599.

US Dollar Futures Index was also down 0.36 percent to US$ 90.940 on May 3.