Stocks (mostly) rally as Wall Street cheers Biden's stimulus package

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 3/8/2021, 1:07 p.m.
Wall Street was in rally mode Monday -- for the most part. Tech stocks and other momentum darlings -- the …
The Dow surged more than 600 points on March 8, as investors cheered the Senate's passage of a Covid-19 relief package that aims to bolster the US economy. Credit: Nicole Pereira/New York Stock Exchange/AP

By Allison Morrow and Paul R. La Monica

(CNN) -- Wall Street was in rally mode Monday -- for the most part. Tech stocks and other momentum darlings -- the so-called FAANG stocks -- weren't invited to the party.

The Dow surged more than 600 points, or 2%, on Monday as investors cheered the Senate's passage of a Covid-19 relief package that aims to bolster the US economy. The S&P 500, the broadest measure of Wall Street, also rallied 0.8%.

But a selloff in tech stocks continued Monday, dragging the Nasdaq down 0.8%. In fact, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce were the only Dow stocks that were in the red.

And Tesla, down 3%, was one of the big laggards in the S&P 500. Tesla has now fallen nearly 18% so far this year.

Investors appear to be worried about what will happen to big techs and other growth stocks in an environment when inflation pressures are creeping up and bond yields are heading higher.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 1.6% after the Senate cleared President Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal, paving the way for the sweeping legislation to be signed into law early this week.

An improving economy should be good news for investors — even if big tech stocks continue to pull back.

Investors may be engaging in what's called sector rotation: flocking to find new market leaders that should benefit from higher inflation and an improving economy, such as banks, consumer companies and energy stocks.

Optimism about Covid-19 vaccines is also giving Wall Street hope that consumers can soon return back to more normal lives and do things like go to movies, take vacations and go shopping more freely again.

Along those lines, Disney, Coca-Cola and Home Depot were among the top Dow gainers Monday.