New York: US stocks ended higher as the gains in retailer shares and tech-heavy sectors boosted the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 178.48 points, or 0.72 per cent, to 24,813.69 on Monday. The S&P 500 increased 12.25 points, or 0.45 per cent, to 2,746.87, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 52.13 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 7,606.46.
Several retailers were among the best performers on Wall Street. Shares of Target rose 4.88 per cent, while stocks of Kohl’s Corporation and Macy’s Inc. advanced 4.67 per cent and 4.33 per cent, respectively, at market closing.
The Nasdaq composite posted a record close on Monday, led by shares of Apple and Amazon. Shares of Apple and Amazon gained 0.84 per cent and 1.45 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, shares of Microsoft gained over 0.87 per cent after the software giant announced plans to acquire software developer platform GitHub for $7.5 billion.
The gains of the major index followed a strong session on Friday when the Dow closed 0.90 per cent higher, the S&P 500 was up 1.08 percent and the Nasdaq rose 1.51 per cent, after the release of the US jobs report.
Experts noted that the better-than-expected job data continued to provide optimism to the market amid geopolitical concerns.
IANS