S&P 500 ends at record high as Wall Street rises

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(Reuters) – Wall Street climbed on Monday, with the S&P 500 closing at a record high, as investors awaited cues from the Federal Reserve this week amid caution over rising borrowing costs spurred by massive fiscal stimulus.

In a concrete sign that the worst of the damage from the coronavirus pandemic may be over for the airline industry, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways said leisure bookings were rising.

The S&P 1500 airlines index jumped to a one-year high, while other travel-related stocks, including Carnival Corp, Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts also gained.

Most of the 11 major S&P sector indexes rose, led by utilities and real estate.

Major stock indexes on Friday logged their best week in six after mass vaccinations and congressional approval of a $1.9 trillion aid bill accelerated demand for stocks expected to outperform as the economy reopens, such as banks, energy, materials companies.

The Russell growth index outperformed the Russell value index in a modest reversal of investors’ recent trend away from technology and other high-growth stocks.

 “With the vaccine positive news and the stimulus, we think there will continue to be a fair amount of rotation out of the stay-at-home stocks,” said Greg Bassuk, CEO of AXS Investments. “We are bullish on financial services and energy coming out of the pandemic.”

 At the end of Fed’s two-day meeting on Wednesday, policymakers are expected to forecast that the U.S. economy will grow in 2021 at its fastest rate in decades while reiterating their dovish stance for the foreseeable future.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries ticked lower to 1.60%, below its 13-month peak of 1.64% on Friday. Wall Street has been roiled in recent weeks by a spike in longer-dated U.S. bond yields due to fears of an increase in inflation.

Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 173.64 points, or 0.53%, to 32,952.28, the S&P 500 gained 25.43 points, or 0.64%, to 3,968.77 and the Nasdaq Composite added 139.84 points, or 1.05%, to 13,459.71.

Tesla TSLA.O rose after the company added “Technoking of Tesla” to Chief Executive Elon Musk’s list of official titles in a formal regulatory filing.

Eli Lilly and Co shares slumped around after a mid-stage trial testing its experimental Alzheimer’s drug led to “mixed” results, reducing the chances for the drug’s accelerated approval, according to analysts. 

Reporting by Noel Randewich in Oakland, Calif.; additional reporting by Shashank Nayar and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Aurora Ellis

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