Dow Jumps 400 Points; US Retail Sales Increase Less Than Expected

U.S. stocks traded higher midway through trading, with the Dow Jones index gaining around 400 points on Monday.

The Dow traded up 0.97% to 41,888.57 while the NASDAQ climbed 0.33% to 17,812.14. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.72% to 5,679.43.

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Leading and Lagging Sectors

Energy shares jumped by 1.9% on Monday.

In trading on Monday, consumer discretionary shares fell by 0.3%.

Top Headline

U.S. retail sales rose 0.2% month-over-month in February following a revised 1.2% decline in January but down from market expectations of a 0.6% rise.

Equities Trading UP

Guess?, Inc. GES shares shot up 28% to $12.45 after the company announced it received a non-binding proposal from WHP Global to acquire the company for $13 per share in cash.
Shares of Qifu Technology, Inc. QFINgot a boost, surging 11% to $48.04 after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter financial results.
Baidu, Inc. BIDU shares were also up, gaining 9% to $102.50 after the company announced the launch of ERNIE 4.5 and deep-thinking model ERNIE X1.

Equities Trading DOWN

Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. SEI shares dropped 17% to $20.40 after Morpheus Research issued a report.
Shares of Aditxt, Inc. ADTX were down 15% to $4.2650.
Gorilla Technology Group Inc. GRRR was down, falling 14% to $29.01 after Citron Research made comments criticizing the company on social media.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded up 0.8% to $67.69 while gold traded up 0.2% at $3,007.00.

Silver traded down 0.2% to $34.355 on Monday, while copper rose 1.6% to $4.9755.

Euro zone

European shares were higher today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 gained 0.79%, Germany's DAX 40 jumped 0.73% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.57%. Spain's IBEX 35 Index rose 1.09%, while London's FTSE 100 rose 0.56%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed higher on Monday, with Japan's Nikkei gaining 0.93%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.19%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surging 0.77% and India's BSE Sensex gaining 0.46%.

Economics

U.S. retail sales rose 0.2% month-over-month in February following a revised 1.2% decline in January but down from market expectations of a 0.6% rise.
The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index declined 26 points to -20.0 in March, recording the lowest reading since May 2023.
The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index fell to 39 in March versus a reading of 42 in February.
U.S. business inventories increased 0.3% month-over-month in January following a 0.2% drop in December.

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