Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed slightly above breakeven on Monday, as investors cheered centrist Emmanuel Macron’s landslide victory over Marine Le Pen in the runoff vote on Sunday.
Investors sentiment shifted towards riskier assets, as centrist candidate Macron won the race to the French presidency, defeating anti-EU candidate by a landslide margin, after he garnered 66% of the French vote.
Meanwhile, on the economic data front, investors digested comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard and Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester.
Fed official Mester hinted at the idea of further rate hikes, after she said that the Federal Reserve is close to meeting its employment and inflation objectives.
"We have met the maximum employment part of our mandate and inflation is nearing our 2 percent goal." Mester said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Fed official Bullard adopted a somewhat dovish tone, highlighting the stronger demand for safe assets as well as sluggish growth in the U.S. labor market as headwinds for potential rate hikes.
Fed official Bullard’s comments failed to dampened expectations for a June rate hike, which soared to its highest level on Monday, following a strong U.S. jobs report released on Friday.
According to investing.com’s Fed rate monitor tool, nearly 80% of traders expect the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates in June, compared to 63% in the previous week.
Meanwhile, in corporate news, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) rallied to an all-time new high on Monday, as investors continued to pile into the tech giant, on the back of a strong first quarter earnings report, released last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average at 21,012.28, up 0.03%. The S&P 500 closed roughly flat while the Nasdaq Composite closed at a record high of 6102.66.
The ‘Bulls and Bears’ on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers included; Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) up 2.7%, Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) up 1.1%, while Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) added 0.8%.
E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) down 1.1%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) down 0.8% and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) down 0.8%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.