Easing Coronavirus Concerns Lead To Rally On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - After moving sharply higher early in the session, stocks saw further upside over the course of the trading day on Monday. With the rally on the day, the major averages more than offset the steep losses posted last week.

The major averages reached new highs for the session going into the close. The Dow soared 1,627.46 points or 7.7 percent to 22,679.99, the Nasdaq spiked 540.15 points or 7.3 percent to 7,913.24 and the S&P 500 surged up 175.03 points or 7 percent to 2,663.68.

The rally on Wall Street came as the reported death tolls in some of the world's coronavirus hot spots showed signs of easing over the weekend.

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in New York State fell to 594 on Sunday from 630 on Saturday, reflecting the first daily decrease.

President Donald Trump warned the country could be headed into its "toughest" week but expressed hope the country was seeing a "leveling off" of the coronavirus crisis.

Reports of decreases in the number of new infections and deaths in European countries like Italy and Spain also generated positive sentiment.

Housing stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index soaring by 11.4 percent.

Significant strength was also visible among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 10.4 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Financial stocks also saw considerable strength, with the KBW Bank Index and the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index jumping by 9.1 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively.

Chemical, networking, software and commercial real estate stocks also moved sharply on the day amid broad based buying interest.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Monday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index spiked by 4.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged up by 2.2 percent.

The major European markets also showed strong moves to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index skyrocketed by 5.8 percent, the French CAC 40 Index soared by 4.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index jumped by 3.1 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries moved notably lower amid the easing coronavirus concerns. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, climbed 8.9 basis points to 0.676 percent.

Looking Ahead

Trading on Tuesday may be impacted by reaction to the latest coronavirus data amid another quiet day on the U.S. economic front.