Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on October 25, 2021 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to a new intraday high Monday after Congress approved an infrastructure spending package.
The blue-chip average gained 145 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 ticked up 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.3%.
The U.S. House of Representatives late Friday passed a more than $1 trillion infrastructure bill, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden for his signature. The package, first passed by the Senate in August, would provide new funding for transportation, utilities and broadband, among other infrastructure projects.
Dow 30 mainstay Caterpillar saw its shares rise more than 3% as the manufacturer of construction equipment could benefit from the spending package. Heavy equipment producer Deere also got a lift, with shares up 2%. Vulcan Materials and Nucor each added more than 4% and 5%, respectively.
Tesla founder Elon Musk rattled investors this weekend, asking in a Twitter poll whether he should sell 10% of his stock as a response to political clamoring to tax unrealized gains from equity holdings. As some 58% of respondents said yes, shares in Tesla dropped about 4%.
The three major U.S. stock averages each closed at record highs Friday to cap off a winning week. The rally came after the October jobs report came in better than economists had expected. U.S. payrolls added 531,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department. Friday’s report also revised up September and August payroll numbers.
“The economy is certainly picking up some momentum,” JPMorgan’s David Lebovitz said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “We are expecting economic growth to accelerate here into the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022.”
The Federal Reserve earlier last week announced a plan to begin tapering its pandemic-era economic aid by the end of November, putting the central bank on track to end its asset purchase program by the middle of next year.
Investors await fresh inflation readings in the week ahead. The producer price index and consumer price index are slated for release on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Economists expect both reports to remain hot for October.
