U.S. stock markets rose on Monday, following in the footsteps of rebounding European markets after tensions between Ukraine and Russia receded a bit over the weekend.
Global markets were in flux at the end of last week after Ukraine claimed responsibility for the partial destruction of a column of armed Russian vehicles that allegedly crossed its borders. But, Russian officials discredited those claims on Monday and there was no outbreak of hostilities over the weekend, as the markets seemed to have feared on Friday.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded strongly, adding more than 175 points, an increase of 1.1%. The Dow is now up roughly 2% for the year after a series of massive sell-offs earlier this month managed to temporarily erase all of the blue-chip index’s yearly gains. Even with Monday’s growth, though, the index remains roughly 1.7% below the record high closing of 17,138.20 it hit just over a month ago.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq hit a 14-year high Monday, closing up almost 1% to finish at 4,508.31. The index also suffered from the sell-offs earlier this month, but still fared better than other major indices and is up more than 1.7% for the past month. The S&P 500 was also up 0.9% Monday and is now up roughly 7% on the year, despite still being down slightly over the past month due to the aforementioned sell-offs.
The market rebound followed similar positive signs overseas, where the U.K.’s FTSE100 index was up 0.8% for the day, while Germany’s Deutsche Boerse rose 1.7%. As Fortunereported earlier, the rebound also saw prices for crude oil and “safe-haven” assets fall. The price of Brent crude oil fell 1.8% on Monday, while West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 0.8%.
Dollar General (DG) was among the big gainers in share price on Monday, jumping 11.6% during the day after announcing its $9.7 billion bid for rival retail chain Family Dollar Stores (FDO), topping a previous $8.5 billion bid by fellow rival Dollar Tree. Family Dollar’s stock was up almost 5% at the end of the day.
