S&P 500 closes above 4,700 for the first time as infrastructure stocks rally

The S&P 500 closed at a record high Monday after Congress approved an infrastructure spending package.

The broad index gained 0.09% to close above 4,700 for the first time at 4,701.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 104.27 points, or 0.3%, to close at 36,432.22. The Nasdaq Composite ticked up 0.07% at 15,982.36. All three stock averages posted record closes.

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. First passed by the Senate in August, the package would provide new funding for transportation, utilities and broadband, among other infrastructure projects.

“Investors have waited for a significant step-up in infrastructure spending for decades,” Citi’s Anthony Pettinari said in a note. “We view this generational investment as a significant catalyst for growth for a number of our stocks.”

Industrials and materials stocks rallied Monday with those names set to benefit from the spending package. The Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development exchange-traded fund rose nearly 1.3% and hit a new all-time high Monday morning.

Mining company Freeport-McMoRan, construction materials stock Vulcan and steel corporation Nucor were among the notable gainers on the S&P 500. Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar led the Dow’s rally with a 4% gain. Heavy equipment producer Deere saw its shares rise about 1.6%. United Rentals, Martin Marietta and Jacobs Engineering were among other infrastructure-related gainers.

Elsewhere, chip maker Advanced Micro Devices led gains on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite. AMD rallied 10.1% after the company announced it won Meta, formerly known as Facebook, as a chip customer and revealed new chip products.

Meanwhile, 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. Nearly 58% of respondents said yes, and shares of Tesla closed 4.8% lower Monday.

The passage of the infrastructure stimulus, an improving Covid situation in the U.S., and a better-than-expected labor market reading boosted investor confidence in the economic recovery. The October jobs report came in Friday better than economists expected as U.S. payrolls added 531,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department.

“We expect Equities to continue to climb the ‘wall of worry’, as risks look largely priced in and showing signs of improvement,” JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic said in a note Monday.

The S&P 500 has now posted 64 record closes in 2021 and is up more than 25% this 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.

The Federal Reserve is eyeing both inflation and jobs data to guide its timeline on normalizing monetary policy.

Last week, the Fed 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.