Investing.com – Wall Street continued to rise with the S&P 500 up for a fifth straight session, topping $20 trillion in value for the first time ever, as investors continued to speculate that President Donald Trump will enact fiscal policies to further support stocks.
At 11:40AM ET (16:40GMT), the Dow Jones gained 129 points, or 0.64%, the S&P 500 rose 10 points, or 0.44%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 28 points, or 0.48%.
In a session with no major economic reports, investors took heart in the fact that the two-day U.S.-Japan summit held over the weekend apparently ended smoothly without Trump talking tough on trade, currency and security issues.
On Monday, trade deals would remain in focus as Trump met up with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in their first face-to-face since the U.S. President pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
A joint press conference was scheduled after their meeting and lunch at 2:00PM ET (19:00GMT).
Trump gave market participants hope last Thursday as he promised he was “ahead of schedule” to deliver what would be a “phenomenal” tax plan to reduce the burden on corporate American and spur economic growth.
Despite markets’ high hopes, analysts from The Earnings Scout warned that “Trump’s plans must be ‘phenomenal’ and lead to improving earnings expectations soon, because the diverging price and earnings-per-share estimate trends aren’t sustainable.”
Apart from Trump, focus was on the fact that OPEC’s first monthly report since major oil producers began cutting their production showed the cartel with a 93% compliance rate on the plan.
Though crude prices initially pared losses, concern about the increase in U.S. drilling activity appeared to outweigh bullish sentiment and oil sank around 2% near midday trade Monday.
Oilfield services provider Baker Hughes said late Friday that the number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. increased by 8 last week, the 14th gain in 15 weeks.
That brought the total count to 591, the most since October 2015, underlining concerns that the ongoing rebound in U.S. shale production could derail efforts by other major producers to rebalance global oil supply and demand.
U.S. crude futures sank 1.78% to $52.90 by 11:41AM ET (17:41GMT), while Brent oil traded down 1.96% to $55.59.