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U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, the first trading day of May, as shares tied to the economic reopening continued to rise.
The Dow Jones Industrials popped 266.69 points to begin Monday at 34,141.54
The S&P 500 picked up 24.74 points to 4,205.91.
The NASDAQ Composite gained 68.26 points to 14,030.94.
Berkshire Hathaway shares rose 1% after Warren Buffett’s conglomerate reported a 20% surge in operating earnings and continued to buy back large amounts of its own shares. Buffett also revealed that when he is no longer in charge, Greg Abel, vice chairman of all non-insurance operations, will succeed him.
Bets on the economic reopening led the market advance. Gap jumped more than 4%, while Disney and Royal Caribbean rose more than 1% each. Caterpillar and Travelers Companies also both gained about 1%.
Shares of Verizon rose 0.9% after the telecom giant said it will sell its media group to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion. The sale allows Verizon to offload properties from the former internet empires of AOL and Yahoo.
Monday marks the first trading day of May. Despite Friday’s weakness in equities, the S&P 500 notched its third straight month of gains in April, adding more than 5% to the index as investors bet on a big economic and profit recovery from the pandemic.
The S&P 500 is now up 11% for the year. The benchmark closed at record levels on Thursday on the heels of blowout earnings results from Apple and Facebook.
The Dow rose about 2.7% last month, while the NASDAQ Composite gained 5.4% in April.
Some investors are expecting weakness in the new month given the old “sell in May and go away” Wall Street adage. This mantra calls for taking off risk from May to October, a period where the market is more prone to selloffs historically.
Manufacturing PMI data for April and Institute for Supply Management manufacturing figures were due this morning.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys were higher, lowering yields to 1.59% from Friday’s 1.63%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices moved ahead 76 cents to $64.34 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices raced $27.60 to $1,795.30 U.S. an ounce.
