US close: Stocks mixed ahead of Powell testimony

dl nyse new york stock exchange wall st street city finance dow jones nasdaq sp finance dollar dollars us usa united states of america 2 — New York Stock ExchangeSharecast photo / Josh White

Wall Street stocks delivered a mixed performance on Monday as traders held their breath for a number of economic data points and comments from policymakers scheduled for later in the week.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.12% at 33,431.44, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.07% to 4,048.42 and Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.11% stronger at 11,675.74.

The Dow closed 40.47 points higher on Monday, extending solid gains recorded in the previous session as all three major averages wrapped up the week in positive territory despite elevated Treasury yields.

Market participants were looking ahead to congressional testimony from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, which will hopefully provide insight into exactly what the central bank thinks about inflation and what its rate-hiking campaign will look like going forward.

Investors also patiently awaited February's jobs report, scheduled for release on Friday, which comes after red hot numbers that revealed the US economy added 517,000 payrolls in the prior month. Economists expect to see a print of 225,000.

On the macro front, factory orders fell 1.6% month-on-month in January, according to the Census Bureau, following a downwardly revised 1.7% increase in December but still beating market expectations for a 1.8% decline.

Orders for transportation tumbled 13.3%, while new orders rose for fabricated metal products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and machinery. Excluding transportation, factory orders rose 1.2%, bouncing back from a 1.2% fall in the previous month.

No major corporate earnings were released on Monday.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com

Dow Jones - Risers

Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) $111.10 3.95%
Apple Inc. (AAPL) $153.83 1.85%
Coca-Cola Co. (KO) $60.36 1.55%
Visa Inc. (V) $226.75 1.33%
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) $155.56 1.00%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) $166.17 0.73%
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) $256.87 0.62%
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) $270.64 0.58%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. (UNH) $480.78 0.46%
International Business Machines Corporation (CDI) (IBM) $130.15 0.42%