Wall Street’s S&P500, Nasdaq Rally to New Record Highs

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Principal Points

• Wall Street stocks rally, S&P500 and Nasdaq surge to records, boosted by technology shares
• Facebook logs a new all-time high as it becomes the fifth US company to reach a $1tn valuation

Wall Street finished another record-breaking session yesterday as the S&P500 and the Nasdaq Composite made their way to new all-time records, both propelled higher by a rally in technology stocks. As investors brushed aside fears of inflation poised to hurt the lofty valuations of technology companies, big tech names reached their highest valuations on Monday.

The Nasdaq Composite pushed higher by 0.98%, or 140.12 points, to 14,500.51 points, a new record for the tech-focused benchmark index. The S&P500 gained 0.23%, or 9.91 points, to hit a new all-time high at 4,290.61 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was pushed aside and declined 0.44%, or 150.57 points, to 34,283.27 points.

The swing from value stocks to growth stocks was once again the major market theme that narrated the movement of capital on Wall Street. While shares in airlines, energy and leisure companies dropped, leading the Dow lower, technology shares marched higher.

Shares of Boeing declined 3.39%, or $8.42, alongside Chevron which slipped 3.08%, or $3.31. On the other hand, tech names such as Netflix, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, all advanced by more than 1%. Facebook jumped 4.18%, or $14.27, to a new high of $355.64 a share. Tesla climbed 2.51%, or $16.85, to $688.72 a share.

The gains in technology mounted as investors became optimistic to hold high-growth stocks despite an expected rise in borrowing costs. Market jitters eased last week when Fed Chair Jay Powell vowed not to raise rates “pre-emptively”, but instead, to allow the economy to recover further.

Investors are expecting this week’s trading to be relatively quiet, at least until Friday when the jobs report is set to arrive. The non-farm payrolls data is expected to show whether the accelerating recovery is translating to a growing labor market.

Facebook Joins the Trillion-Dollar Club

In corporate news, Facebook joined the ranks of companies valued over $1tn after winning a significant legal battle. A US District Court judge dismissed antitrust complaints against the company filed by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC alleged, near the end of last year, that Facebook was “illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a yearlong course of anticompetitive conduct.” The arguments were rejected by the District Court for the District of Columbia on the grounds of insufficient facts.

“Although the Court does not agree with all of Facebook’s contentions here, it ultimately concurs that the complaint is legally insufficient and must therefore be dismissed,” the decision stated. “The FTC has failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element of all of its … claims—namely, that Facebook has monopoly power,” it concluded.

Shortly after the legal win, Facebook released a statement saying the company is “pleased that today’s decisions recognize the defects in the government complaints filed against Facebook.” As investors flocked to Facebook shares, the company became the fifth US company to achieve a valuation of $1tn.