FX.co ★ Stocks Up Firmly In Positive Territory, Look Set To End On Firm Note

On Monday afternoon, U.S. stocks have made a solid recovery from a mid-morning dip, with all the major indices such as the Nasdaq, Dow, and S&P 500 posting substantial gains. The slightly easing tensions in the Middle East, after Iran and Israel chose 'measured' counterattacks to avoid casualties, appear to have helped. Alongside, investors are also exploiting the market downturn to grab lucrative deals.

This week, investors are braced for the release of several significant U.S. economic indices, including data on new home sales, orders of durable goods, as well as personal income and spending. The latter, issued by the Commerce Department, will include a measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve often relies on.

The earnings season is also set to intensify this week, with announcements expected from Tesla, Boeing, IBM, Caterpillar, Honeywell, Alphabet, Intel, Microsoft, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, among others.

As of now, the Dow index has risen by 290.70 points or 0.77%, reaching 38,277.10, the S&P 500 has increased by 47.93 points or 0.96% to 5,015.16, and the Nasdaq is up 172.96 points or 1.13%, at 15,454.97.

Colgate Palolive has surged by over 8%, while Ford has climbed nearly 6%. Other notable gainers include United Airlines Holdings, Nvidia, Philip Morris International, Goldman Sachs, American Airlines, Moderna, Citigroup, Travelers Companies, US Bancorp, Bank of America and General Motors, with each registering an increase between 3% to 4.5%.

Salesforce.com has also seen a hike in its share price after withdrawing from acquiring Informatica, a data-management software firm.

Before revealing its earnings, Tesla's shares dipped over 3%. Verizon and Live Nation's shares also plummeted. Despite announcing weak profits and a slight increase in revenue for the first quarter, Verizon Communications Inc, on Monday, continued with its earnings forecast for the fiscal year 2024, projecting adjusted earnings per share between $4.50 to $4.70.

On the international front, most of the Asia-Pacific stock markets, including the Nikkei 225 Index of Japan and Hang Seng Index of Hong Kong, closed with gains. Major European markets also followed suit, with positive results from the UK's FTSE 100 Index, Germany's DAX Index, and France's CAC 40 Index.

In commodities trading, the price per barrel of crude oil rose by 0.30 or 0.25% to $83.34, while gold prices fell by $69.30 or 2.87% to $2,344.50 an ounce.

In the currency market, the U.S. dollar traded at 154.78 yen, slightly up from its last closing price of 154.64 yen in New York on Friday. The dollar also experienced a marginal rise against the euro, trading at $1.0651 compared to $1.0656 last Friday.