On Monday, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose as investors turned to megacap stocks while awaiting updates on a fresh round of talks about raising the U.S. debt ceiling. Microsoft, Tesla and Alphabet were up between 0.6% and 2.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.31% as shares of Micron fell after China’s ban on its memory chips.
President Joe Biden and House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy will meet for talks on Monday after their discussions almost fell apart on Friday. Investors are looking back to prior periods where the debt ceiling debate ultimately got resolved.
In a move that was perceived as ramping up trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, China barred chipmaker Micron Technology from selling memory chips to key domestic industries, sending its shares down 2.4%. Apple slipped 0.6% after a report that Loop Capital downgraded the iPhone maker’s stock to “hold” from “buy”.
Dow component Chevron fell 0.7% as the oil major said it would buy PDC Energy in a stock-and-debt transaction for $7.6 billion. PacWest Bancorp rose nearly 15% after the regional lender entered into an agreement to sell a portfolio of 74 real estate construction loans to a subsidiary of Kennedy-Wilson Holdings Inc.
Investors now await key data points this week, including a reading on April personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index, considered to be the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, due on Friday. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and St. Louis Fed chief James Bullard both commented on the possibility of the Fed raising rates this year.