STORY: A fairly muted Monday on Wall Street saw the Dow end essentially flat, the S&P 500 edge up fractionally, and the Nasdaq finish more than a third of a percent higher.
Still, the latter two indexes eked out more record high closes, thanks to gains in shares of Alphabet.
The Google parent rallied more than 2.5% ahead of its quarterly report on Wednesday.
Tesla also reports on Wednesday, with the two tech giants kicking off earnings from the so-called “Magnificent Seven.”
Analysts on average expect S&P 500 companies to report a 6.7% increase in earnings for the second quarter, with Big Tech driving much of that gain, according to LSEG I/B/E/S.
And that has Rob Haworth, senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Asset Management Group, bullish on stocks.
“On the market side, we are still glass half full. And that really comes from one; a solid labor market. Two; corporate earnings are looking really fairly solid for the year. And three; inflation, even though it's elevated and may creep a little higher, is not threatening the consumer at this point. So we think this is an economy that can survive, and the markets appear to be doing that as well.”
Other Monday movers included Verizon, which rallied over 4% after the telecommunications company boosted its annual profit forecast.
Investors now turn their attention to a Tuesday speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for clues about when the central bank might cut interest rates.
