Investing.com -- U.S. stocks moved broadly higher on Monday amid continuing indications of a 2015 interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, as the NASDAQ Composite index surged to an all-time closing highs.
Spurred by a strong performance from AAPL and a host of other major technology stocks, the NASDAQ posted moderate gains to move to a new record high previously reached on Friday. A stellar session in tech stocks also boosted the Dow Jones Industrial and the S&P 500, which each rose by more than 0.05% on the session. The Dow gained 13.96 or 0.08% to 18,100.41, while the NASDAQ added 8.72 or 0.17% to close Monday's session comfortably above 5,000 at 5,218.86.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, gained 1.64 or 0.08% to 2,128.28, as seven of 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Technology, Telecommunications and Financial sectors led, each gaining more than 0.25% on the day. The S&P closed points away from reaching its own all-time closing high.
Shares in Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) soared more than 1.5% to near seven-year highs, after one of the nation's largest banks exceeded analysts' forecasts with its second quarter earnings. During the quarter, Morgan Stanley's revenue from its FICC or bond, foreign exchange and commodities division jumped 30% to $1.38 billion, while its revenue from equities trade soared 28% to $2.34 billion.
The top performer on the Dow was Visa Inc (NYSE:V), which gained 1.82 or 2.57% to 72.70, after analysts from Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock on Monday. The worst performer was Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), which fell 0.37 or 1.26% to 29.10.
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which added 2.94 or 3.10% to 97.91. eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) closed at 28.57 after the Northern California-based multinational e-commerce company completed a spin-off of Pay Pal on Monday. Ebay finished just below Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) as the worst performer of the session, which fell more than 6% to 18.89, amid growing speculation that a merger with Chinese company Tsinghua Unigroup might not be feasible.
The top performer on the S&P 500 was Hasbro Inc (NASDAQ:HAS), which soared to a new record-high at 84.41 after gaining more than 6.25% on the session. Earlier on Monday, the toy giant beat analysts' forecasts with its quarterly earnings due in part to the success from Jurassic World and increased demand in Nerf toy guns, as well as Marvel products. Ebay also closed as the worst performer on the S&P 500, just below Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE:NEM), which plummeted more than 12.2% to 18.16. Gold futures crashed to five-year lows during a massive sell-off in Asian markets, before slightly recovering on Monday afternoon.