US stocks reverse course to close higher even as 10-year Treasury hits 3% and Fed rate hike looms

New York stock exchange trader
Investors have become more cautious about US stocks in recent weeks. Johannes Eisele/Getty Images

  • The Nasdaq jumped more than 1.5% on Monday despite trending lower for most of the day as interest rates surged.
  • The US 10-year Treasury yield hit 3.00% for the first time since 2018 as the Fed is set to raise interest rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday.
  • First-quarter earnings results continue to roll-in, and 77% of companies that have reported so far have beaten profit estimates.
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US stocks whipsawed on Monday as investors digested surging interest rates, first-quarter earnings results, and brace for a Federal Reserve rate decision later this week.

The S&P 500 led stocks lower for much of the day, falling as much as 1% before investors began to buy the dip and push the broader market higher near the end of the day. The Nasdaq finished up by nearly 2%.

The Federal Open Market Committee meets on Tuesday and Wednesday, with an interest rate decision to be revealed at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Market participants expect Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to announce an increase to the federal funds rate of 50 basis points, just two months after it made its first 25-basis-point hike of the cycle in a bid to tame inflation. The 10-year US Treasury yield hit 3.00% for the first time since 2018 on Monday.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Monday:

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Meanwhile, first-quarter earnings continue to roll in, with about 55% of S&P 500 companies having already reported results. Of those companies, 77% are beating profit estimates by a median of 8%. Additionally, 69% of those companies are beating revenue estimates by a median of 4%, according to Fundstrat.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway held its annual shareholder meeting over the weekend, and Insider's Theron Mohamed traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, to document the event.

The $785 billion conglomerate revealed that it bought a net $41 billion in stocks last quarter, while slowing down the pace of its own share repurchases. Clearly, Buffett still sees opportunity in the stock market despite the recent volatility.

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Berkshire purchased shares of Activision Blizzard after Microsoft announced its proposed acquisition in a merger arbitrage play, and it also increased its position in Apple, which by far represents its largest stock portfolio holding. 

Despite losing more than $2 billion on its position, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest continues to buy shares of Teladoc after its nearly 50% earnings-driven implosion last week. The innovation-focused investor bought more than 600,000 shares of the tele-medicine company across its ETFs on Thursday and reiterated a bullish view on the company in an e-mail to investors.

Goldman Sachs' traders recorded 32 separate $100 million-revenue days during the first quarter of this year, the bank said Monday in a regulatory filing. That's good for about half the total trading days in the three months up to March — Goldman's best run since 2011, Bloomberg data shows.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose as much as much as 0.85% to $105.58 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, jumped as much as 0.87% to $108.07.

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Bitcoin fell 0.30% to $38,582. Ether prices rose 0.13% to $2,845.

Gold fell as much as 2.58% to $1,863.20 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury added seven basis points to 3.0%.

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