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Wall Street hits record highs

written by Bella Palmer
wall-street

Both the tech-focussed Nasdaq and the broad-based S&P 500 rose to all-time closing highs

Wall Street stocks rallied to fresh records Monday on enthusiasm over AI, while European markets rose despite political uncertainty in France.

Both the tech-focussed Nasdaq and the broad-based S&P 500 rose to all-time closing highs.

It is not a broad rally but it is a rally with the index up for sure, according to Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management, who pointed to the recent share price gains of Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia as a source of momentum.

Hogan also said that the outlook for US monetary policy had improved somewhat following last week's US inflation figure, which kept alive the possibility of interest rate reductions this year.

Bourses in Paris and Frankfurt also jumped despite angst following President Emmanuel Macron's move last week to call an early general election after his party lost out to the far-right National Rally (RN) in EU parliament elections a week ago.

European markets have risen off the lows of last week but there is little enthusiasm among investors for the region given the prevailing political uncertainty, said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.

The head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, said Monday in response to questions on the negative market fallout from the early French election, that the ECB was "attentive to the proper functioning of financial markets."

Lagarde stressed her aim to see inflation brought back to the ECB's 2% target, as "price stability is of course understood in parallel with financial stability."

In the UK, London stocks closed the day down less than 0.1%.

The BoE is expected to sit tight on interest rates on Thursday, as is customary ahead of UK elections. Britons vote for a new government on July 4, with the cost-of-living crisis one of the major factors in the election.

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