Financial Markets                      10/14 15:20

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street rolled to more records Monday as U.S. stocks 
added to their all-time highs.

   The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% to build on its record set on Friday. It's coming 
off its fifth straight winning week and is on track for its longest weekly 
winning streak of the year.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% and added 201 points to its own 
record, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%.

   The gains followed relatively quiet trading in Europe, while the U.S. bond 
market remained closed for the day because of a holiday.

   The strongest action in global markets came from China, where the finance 
minister gave a highly anticipated update on Saturday about plans for the 
world's second-largest economy. Lan Fo'an said the government is looking at 
additional ways to boost the economy, but he stopped short of unveiling a major 
new stimulus plan that investors were hoping for.

   The lack of detail sent markets spinning. Stocks in Shanghai jumped 2.1%, 
but the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong fell 0.7%. Crude oil prices, meanwhile, 
sank roughly 2% on worries about demand from China's slowing economy.

   Hopes for big stimulus in China have sent Chinese stocks sharply higher 
recently after they languished for years. But investors are skeptical about how 
much it can remake and restore the economy.

   "While clearly welcome, the efforts may be insufficient to spur a new 
reflationary cycle," according to Lisa Shalett, chief investment officer at 
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

   Besides oil, prices also fell for copper and other commodities that a 
healthy Chinese economy would devour. That helped drive down prices for miners, 
such as Freeport-McMoRan, which fell 2.3% for one of the larger losses in the 
S&P 500.

   Boeing lost 1.3% in its first trading since the aerospace giant warned that 
it expects to report that it burned through $1.3 billion in cash during the 
latest quarter and lost $9.97 per share. Boeing also said it was laying off 10% 
of its workforce as it tries to deal with a labor strike that is crippling 
production of the company's best-selling airline planes.

   On the winning side of Wall Street was SoFi Technologies. It rose 11.4% 
after announcing a $2 billion loan platform agreement with investment firm 
Fortress Investment Group, where SoFi will refer pre-qualified borrowers.

   Longboard Pharmaceuticals soared 51.6% after H. Lundbeck, a Danish company, 
said it would buy the biopharmaceutical company in an all-cash deal valuing it 
at $2.6 billion.

   Trump Media & Technology Group jumped 18.5% and is near $30 again for the 
first time since July. The company behind former President Donald Trump's Truth 
Social platform had briefly dropped below $12 last month. It continues to lose 
money, but its stock often moves more with Trump's perceived re-election 
chances than anything else.

   All told, the S&P 500 rose 44.82 points to 5,859.85. The Dow added 201.36 to 
43,065.22, and the Nasdaq composite gained 159.75 to 18,502.69.

   This upcoming week will have few top-tier economic reports outside of 
Thursday's update on sales at U.S. retailers to help guide trading. That will 
likely leave the emphasis on corporate earnings reports, which will pick up the 
pace this week after big banks began the reporting season last week.

   Bank of America, Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealth Group will all report 
their latest results on Tuesday. Later in the week will come United Airlines, 
Netflix, American Express and Procter & Gamble.

   Analysts are looking for S&P 500 companies to deliver overall growth of 4.1% 
in earnings per share for the latest quarter from a year earlier, according to 
FactSet. If they're correct, it would be a fifth straight quarter of growth.

   Solid, continued growth in profits for companies would help tamp down 
criticism that's built up about how expensive the broad stock market looks, 
after share prices ran higher faster than earnings.

   Stocks have broadly rallied to records on relief that interest rates are 
finally heading back down, now that the Federal Reserve has widened its focus 
to include keeping the economy humming instead of just fighting high inflation.

   Recent reports showing the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected have 
also raised optimism that the Fed can pull off a perfect landing where it gets 
inflation down to 2% without causing a recession that many had thought would be 
necessary.

   ___

   AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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