US stocks rise after holiday weekend, boosted by tech

NEW YORK: Wall Street’s major indexes were mostly higher early Monday after the Independence Day holiday, with tech stocks picking up.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 0.8 percent to 26,038.77 shortly after markets opened, while the broad-based S&P 500 added 0.4 percent to 7,516.48.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.2 percent to 53,004.00.

Patrick O’Hare of Briefing.com noted that there was not “a specific news catalyst accounting for the return to the semiconductor stocks.”

He suggested this was due to investors seeking to cash in on lower prices recently.

“The fact that oil prices remain under wraps and that interest rates are behaving themselves coming out of the holiday weekend is helping the market start on the right foot this week,” he added.

Oil prices have cooled amid optimism over US-Iran peace talks, and while markets assess reports that traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz is improving.

Senior market analyst David Morrison of Trade Nation added in a note that investors had been taking “some risk off the table” after a strong performance throughout April, May and June.

“But rather than cashing out of equities altogether, traders still seem keen to stay fully invested,” he said.

“This has helped to broaden out the ongoing rally, as there’s now less concentration in AI-related tech, as funds are more widely dispersed, to an extent,” he said.