Stocks rise with growth names, dollar up on talk of more Moscow sanctions

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks on global indexes rose on Monday, with the Nasdaq and growth names leading gains on Wall Street, while the U.S. dollar strengthened on talk of more sanctions against Moscow following international outrage over Ukraine civilian killings.

Adding to investor caution, the 2-year/10-year Treasury yield curve remained inverted, signaling to some market watchers that a recession may follow in one to two years.

The deaths in Bucha, outside Kyiv, are likely to galvanize the United States and Europe into additional sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The prospect of more sanctions boosted oil prices which jumped over 3%. [O/R]

The dollar gained for the third straight session as investors sought safety in the greenback.

“The dollar is bouncing higher as geopolitical developments have darkened clouds over the global economy,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington. The Kremlin, which calls its action a “special operation,” denied accusations related to the murder of civilians.

The U.S. currency also remained buoyed by a strong non-farm payrolls report for March that backed expectations for a half of a percentage point rate hike by the Federal Reserve next month.

The dollar index rose 0.369%.

The euro, which has been pressured by economic worries since the invasion of Ukraine, fell 0.8% versus the dollar to $1.0970. Against sterling, the euro fell 0.7% at 83.64 pence.

On Wall Street, Twitter shares surged 27.1% on news that Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has built a 9.2% stake in Twitter Inc.

Other big growth shares also gained, with the technology and consumer discretionary giving the S&P 500 its biggest boost.

“Investors are not willing to give up the names that have brought them to this point. They’ve been the favorites for a lot of investors and they’re not ready to move on to something else,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in Chicago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 103.61 points, or 0.3%, to 34,921.88, the S&P 500 gained 36.78 points, or 0.81%, to 4,582.64 and the Nasdaq Composite added 271.05 points, or 1.9%, to 14,532.55.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.84% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.86%.

In the U.S. Treasury market, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes was last at 2.404% while the 2-year note yield was at 2.420%.

The jump in U.S. bond yields has boosted the dollar, particularly against the yen as the Bank of Japan acted repeatedly last week to keep bond yields near zero.

The U.S. Commerce Department said factory orders fell 0.5% in February, in line with expectations. Data for January was revised slightly higher to show orders rising 1.5% instead of 1.4% as previously reported.

Brent crude jumped $3.14, or 3%, to settle at $107.53 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose $4.01, or 4%, to settle at $103.28 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Stephanie Kelly in New York, Julien Ponthus in London; Editing by Richard Chang, Andrea Ricci and David Gregorio)

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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