US markets commenced the week strongly, led by gains in the technology sector, which finished 1.4% higher on Monday.
Among the highlights were Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) announcement that it was seeking to buy movie studio MGM, which owns the likes of Rocky and James Bond, for US$9 billion as the company continues to pivot into the streaming sector.
Similarly, the court showdown between Fortnite developer Riot Games and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) over access to the tech giant’s App Store will finish today with a decision due this week.
Both Amazon and Apple stock finished 1.3% higher for the day.
Meanwhile, shares in Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) rocketed 27.6% following the company’s successful weekend test flight to the edge of space.
More inflation and employment data is due this week with the Biden’s administration deciding to cut the infrastructure stimulus plan from US$2.3 trillion to US$1.7 trillion now unlikely to be passed by Republicans for at least a few weeks.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks performed on Monday.
- Square (NYSE: SQ) up 5.5%
- Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) up 4.4%
- Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) up 2.9%
- Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) up 2.7%
- Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) up 2.3%
- Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) down 1.4%
- JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) down 1.5%
Back home on the ASX, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is set to follow US markets higher at the open. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.
