U.S. equities and stock exchange traded funds continued to strengthen Monday as the ongoing rebound in technology sector stocks help keep market momentum going.
The S&P 500 Index, along with related funds including the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY), iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV) and Vanguard 500 Index (NYSEARCA:VOO), were 0.2% higher Monday.
Technology companies in the S&P 500 led the charge Monday, rising 0.6%. Growth-oriented tech shares have been under pressure over the past month as investors re-evaluated the high valuations in the outperforming market segment.
Meanwhile, healthcare companies in the S&P 500 pared earlier losses and were flat Monday in light of President Donald Trump’s effort to roll back the Affordable Care Act, or so-called Obamacare, faced increasing hurdles, with Republicans divided over how to curb costs of their proposed healthcare bill and prevent millions from losing coverage, Reuters reports.
“We’re going to have to wait and see what the plan B is. With that I think healthcare obviously comes under pressure as it falls into the void of the unknown,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities, told Reuters.
The markets were also trading in relatively muted action as traders refrained from making larger bets ahead of the upcoming earnings season, with big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) expected to start it off on Friday.
Related: 5 Most Popular ETFs of 2017
Banks recently received a boost after the Federal Reserve approved plans from the 34 largest U.S. banks to use extra capital for stock buybacks, dividends and other purposes.
“I think that’s very reflective of the fact that you’ve got a market that’s looking ahead to catalysts and probably not going to react much in front of them,” Hogan added “When the market takes a wait-and-see attitude, the markets tend to react like this.”
According to FactSet, analysts estimate a growth rate of 6.6% across the S&P 500 this earnings season.
For more information on the markets and U.S. Stock ETFs, visit our S&P 500 category.