Stocks rose as technology rebounded: Monday recap

Stocks rose Monday as a rebound in technology shares lifted the market’s largest names off the prior week’s lows. The Nasdaq Composite led, climbing 1.11%, or 290.85 points, to close at 26,430.89. The S&P 500 added 0.41%, or 31.29 points, to end at 7,690.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged, slipping 0.07%, or 36.38 points, to 51,966.03. The order reversed the previous week, when technology dragged the Nasdaq down and the Dow held up best. Leadership stayed narrow.

The move did not spread evenly. Consumer discretionary was the strongest of the eleven S&P 500 sectors, up 1.78%, with technology close behind at 1.36%. Those two carried the tape. Materials edged up 0.06%, and that was the extent of the advance. Everything else leaned lower. Utilities fell hardest, down 2.01%, and real estate lost 1.16%. Financials slipped 0.83%, industrials and energy each gave back 0.64%, and health care eased 0.60%. Consumer staples and communication services also finished in the red. Only three of the eleven groups closed higher. The spread between the best and worst group ran just under four points. With most sectors down and the cap-weighted indexes still up, the day’s gains sat squarely in the biggest technology and consumer names.

The rebound traced to the corner of the market that had been hit hardest. Chips led the comeback. Semiconductor shares, at the center of the prior week’s selloff, drew buyers back as the artificial-intelligence trade that has powered much of the year’s advance regained its footing. The recovery reached the large technology and consumer-facing companies that dominate the Nasdaq, and it followed the index’s worst week since June. News reports tied the turn to renewed confidence in AI-related spending, with investors looking ahead to a heavy week of earnings from several of the largest technology companies. The bounce came after a stretch in which worries about the debt funding the build-out of AI data centers had spread through the sector.

Breadth echoed the sector tape. The small-cap Russell 2000, through its tracking fund, rose 0.31%, a step behind the S&P 500’s tracking fund at 0.42% and far off the pace of the technology leaders. Volatility cooled. The Cboe Volatility Index, Wall Street’s gauge of expected price swings, fell 7.75% to 18.44, unwinding part of the prior week’s jump toward 20. The ten-year Treasury yield eased to 5.10%. Even with Monday’s gain, the market had ground to recover. The fund tracking the Nasdaq-100 was still down 3.71% over the past five sessions and the S&P 500’s tracking fund 1.49%, while the fund tracking the Dow held slightly positive and the small-cap fund was down 2.38%.

The week ahead brings housing figures, including building permits and housing starts, with jobless claims and flash readings on business activity due later. Earnings season widens, with results scheduled from several of the largest technology, communications, and industrial companies. Many of the reports that tend to move markets land in the next few sessions. Investors will take them one by one.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.