Dow rises more than 100 points to close at a record: Live updates

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a new high on Monday as investors awaited fresh inflation and earnings data.

The 30-stock index advanced 125.69 points, or 0.33%, to settle at 38,797.38. The S&P 500 inched lower by 0.09% to end at 5,021.84, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.3% to close at 15,942.55

Salesforce dragged the Dow lower, with the cloud-based software stock sliding 1.4%. Shares of Hershey slipped less than 1% following a downgrade to underweight from Morgan Stanley on the back of softer demand.

On the other hand, Diamondback Energy rose 9.4% after announcing that it would acquire oil and gas producer Endeavor Energy Partners.

On Friday, the S&P 500 closed above 5,000 for the first time in history. The broader index has now risen more than 5% since the start of the year.

All three major averages are coming off their fifth straight week of gains, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite respectively adding 1.4% and 2.3% last week. The Dow edged fractionally higher.

"While U.S. stocks are now pricing in plenty of good news, we believe the rally has been well-supported," wrote Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of UBS Global Wealth Management.

Some 61 names in the S&P 500 are set to report earnings in the week ahead, including gig economy stocks Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash. Companies such as AutoNation, Kraft Heinz, Hasbro and Coca-Cola will also shed light on the state of the U.S. consumer.

Traders will also watch out for the latest level on the consumer price index — or CPI, a key inflationary gauge — set to be released on Tuesday morning. More key economic data is expected on Thursday and Friday, including January's reading on retail sales, production, imports and exports, housing starts and the producer price index, or PPI.

"The Fed emphasized that it would need to see 'greater confidence' in the inflation data to begin its cutting cycle. We think part of the confidence the Fed is looking for is in the composition of disinflation," Bank of America rates strategist Meghan Swiber wrote.

"To date, disinflation has been driven by goods price deflation while services disinflation has been more stubborn. We expect this divergence to persist in January," she added.

Still, the market's rally over the last three months has been unusually strong and consistent, raising the possibility a pullback could occur soon. The S&P 500 has now gone over 70 trading days without experiencing a 2% decline, according to Bespoke Investment Group.