Dow, S&P 500 Post New Closing Highs; Nasdaq Settles Flat

(RTTNews) - U.S. stocks closed on a firm note on Monday, lifting the Dow and the S&P 500 to new record highs, even as the Nasdaq settled flat with technology stocks turning in a subdued performance.

Investors remained optimistic that Donald Trump's policies such as tax reductions and deregulation will help boost corporate earnings.

The volume of business was somewhat thin in the absence of economic data, and due to a lack of significant triggers. Over the next few days, reports on consumer and producer price inflation are likely to attract attention along with reports on retail sales and industrial production this week.

The Dow, which climbed to 44,486.70, gave up some gains subsequently, but stayed firm right through the day's session to settle at 44,293.13, up 304.14 points or 0.69 percent from previous close. The S&P 500 closed up 5.81 points or 0.1 percent at 6,001.35, after having advanced to a new high at 6,017.31. The Nasdaq, which spent much of the day's session in negative territory, eked out a small gain of 11.99 points or 0.06 percent, settling at 19,298.76.

Tesla climbed about 9 percent. Salesforce climbed more than 6 percent. PayPal rallied 4.7 percent. Starbucks closed up 3.2 percent and Airbnb gained 2.7 percent.

American Express, Goldman Sachs, United Health, JPMorgan Chase, Walt Disney, Alphabet, Home Depot, Mastercard, Cisco, Visa, Bank of America, Netflix and Nike gained 1 to 2.5 percent.

Apple Inc., Analog Devices, Micron Technoloy and Intel closed weak. Moderna dropped about 7 percent. Merck, Boeing, Nvidia, Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft also ended notably lower.

In overseas trading, Asian stocks retreated on Monday as Beijing's latest stimulus fell short of investor expectations and weak inflation data dampened hopes for a significant recovery in the world's second largest economy.

The major European markets closed higher today with investors continuing to assess what could be in store for global markets during Trump's second term.