The US markets ended higher on Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs. The continued strength on markets came amid optimism about the outlook for interest rates following last Friday's report on producer price inflation. The Labor Department report showed producer prices were unexpectedly unchanged in September, while the annual rate price growth slowed modestly. While hopes the Federal Reserve will lower rates by another 50 basis points next month have largely evaporated, the data reinforced optimism the central bank will cut rates by 25 basis points.
On the economic data front, Semiconductor stocks turned in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping by 1.8 percent. Considerable strength was also visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. Airline, utilities and banking stocks also saw significant strength, while networking stocks showed a notable move to the downside.
Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 201.36 points or 0.47 percent to 43,065.22, Nasdaq surged 159.75 points or 0.87 percent to 18,502.69 and S&P 500 was up by 44.82 points or 0.77 percent to 5,859.85.