US Stock Market Overview- Stocks Rise, Led by Nasdaq; Most Sectors Were Lower, Technology Outperformed

US stocks moved higher on Monday led by gains in the Nasdaq as large-cap tech stocks took over leadership after declining last week. Most sectors in the S&P 500 index were lower, led down by Real-estate, technology shares bucked the trend.

After the closing bell, IBM is expected to release earnings. Later in the week, technology giant Microsoft will report financial results. The market appears to be shaking off reopening rollbacks. There was good news on the race for a vaccine. Both Pfizer and Atrozenica announced positive results. Chevron announced that it agreed to a deal to purchase Nobel Energy. The VIX volatility index continued to slump which is a positive sign for stock prices. Amazon’s share price was updated on Monday at Jeffries with the firm increasing its target for the stock to 3,800 up from 3,100. The dollar moved lower on Monday which paved the way for higher gold prices which helped buoy the minoring stocks.

Congress Is Negotiating a Stimulus Bill

Congress got back to work to try to bring a new stimulus bill to President Trump by July 30, when the House goes on recess. The house wants a bill that will include another $600 added to unemployment insurance that will last until 2021. The Senate wants a bill that will include protection for businesses that will mitigate any exposure to suits for reopening a business if someone gets COVID at your establishment. The White House wants to limit the amount of money that is used for testing COVID and wants to purely focus on reopening the economy.

Chevron Buys Noble Energy

Chevron Corp. agreed to purchase Noble Energy Inc. for nearly $5 billion, in what would be the largest oil-patch takeover since the coronavirus pandemic delivered a shock to the industry. The all-stock takeover values Noble at $10.38 a share. Chevron said Monday that would represent a roughly 7.6% premium over Noble’s Friday closing price of $9.65 and nearly 12% based on a 10-day average. Including Noble’s hefty debt load, the deal would be valued at roughly $13 billion.