Stocks are enjoying a much-needed lift after their worst week in years, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) starting the week up triple digits, thanks to a rally in tech and financial stocks. Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Apple (AAPL) are leading the Dow, with the former slated to report a earnings later this week. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (IXIC) are also exhibiting healthy gains, as investors digest the Trump administration's infrastructure plan.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- Analyst: Buy these 5 retail stocks.
- The market-defying social media stock ripe for upgrades.
- Plus, the credit card concern with unusual volume; a soaring steel stock; and Amazon's latest victim.
Among the stocks with unusual options volume today is MasterCard Inc (NYSE:MA), with more than 21,000 calls traded -- eight times what's typically seen at this point in the day. Most of today's action is attributable to sell-to-open activity at the February 170 call, according to Trade-Alert. At last check, MA stock was up 2% at $167.72, and touched a fresh record high of $177.11 on Feb. 2.
The top performer on the New York Stock Exchange today is steel stock TimkenSteel Corp (NYSE:TMST). Shares of TMST are soaring after the company received an upgrade from KeyBanc to "overweight" from "sector weight" this morning. At last check, TimkenSteel stock had gapped 12.5% higher to trade at $16.39.
One of the worst performers on the Nasdaq today is stamp seller Stamps.com Inc (NASDAQ:STMP), just days after e-commerce powerhouse Amazon (AMZN) announced that it will be testing a new shipping service in four cities. At last check, the shares of STMP were down 9% at $167.80, a more than 28% drop from their late-October highs.