Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Stocks were higher Monday as Wall Street looked to maintain the strong momentum seen in the first half of 2024.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered near the flatline, while the S&P 500 gained 0.1%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6%.
Technology stocks Microsoft and Alphabet traded marginally higher, alongside artificial intelligence favorite Nvidia.
Gains were kept in check as Treasury yields soared. The benchmark 10-year yield climbed 14 basis points to 4.481%.
Cruise operator stocks were under pressure as Beryl made landfall in the Caribbean as a Category 4 hurricane. Carnival slid 4%, and Royal Caribbean lost 1.6%.
Those moves follow continued excitement surrounding AI that helped prop up stocks such as Nvidia, which led the S&P 500 to a 14.5% first-half gain. The Nasdaq Composite rallied 18.1% in the first half, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average underperformed due to a pullback in the second quarter, adding 3.8%.
SPX year to date
Investors are still ever cognizant of a lack of market breadth that continues to plague the market and could influence moves into the second half of the year, according to Calamos Investments senior vice president and portfolio specialist Joseph Cusick. He noted that only 10 stocks make up roughly 33% of the S&P 500’s overall weight, which is a level of disproportion he says has only occurred three times in the past.
“The public and advisors are seeing and feeling this pressure of heightened risks,” Cusick told CNBC. “The excuse in this cycle is that the nature of market dominance is not looking to be ebbing, but with markets right off all-time highs, advisors and clients should not abandon proactive portfolio management and strategy diversification.”
Still, some expect this technology-driven momentum to persist at least through the summer, despite some fears that multiples have hit heightened levels.
“[W]hile Artificial Intelligence may seem like just another temporary fad, I believe it is much more,” said Kevin Philip, partner at Bel Air Investment Advisors. “It has the ability to re-ignite increased productivity for companies, advance technologies in faster and more efficient ways, and create entire new industries with discoveries resulting from the collision of AI and even more powerful computer processing.”
Monday kicks off a holiday-shortened trading week, with the market closed Thursday for Fourth of July. Investors will get a big clue into the state of the labor market Friday with the June jobs report.
