Bay Area stocks such as Tesla and Twitter rallied Monday as investors showed continued enthusiasm over hopes of the economy reopening and beginning to recover from the devastation wrong by shutdowns aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus.
Tesla shares climbed by 4.6%, to $926.45, to trade at levels not seen in almost four months, and were on track for a potentially all-time high close. Auto industry reports said Tesla saw demand for its cars in China increase in May, with the company selling about 11,000 cars during the month compared to around 4,000 cars sold in April.
Twitter rose by 5%, to $36.61, as analysts said the social media company is growing its influence as a platform for information following the national protests that have taken place following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May.
Other big-name Bay Area companies on the rise included HP, up by 3.2%, at $17.97 a share, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which rose by 3.6%, to $11.51 a share, Roku, up by 4%, at $108.56 a share, and Oracle, which rose 1%, to $54.49 a share.
The gains helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 232 points, or almost 1%, to 27,343.48, and added to Friday’s gain of more than 800 points. The S&P 500 rose by 0.4%, to 3,206.14, and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbed by 0.3%, to 9,838.40.
The gains also reflected positive sentiment from Friday’s jobs report, in which the Labor Department said the national economy added 2.5 million jobs in May as businesses started the reopening process.
Google parent company Alphabet was near its breakeven point at $1,435.04 a share. Google said Monday that its Google Maps feature will begin showing warnings and alerts that will include features such as if public transit services are affected by coronavirus and details on eligibility for going to a COVID-19 treatment center.
Apple shares slipped by 0.4%, to $330.11 as the company began to reopen stores around the Bay Area, and elsewhere, that had be closed due to the impact of nationwide vandalism following protests that have taken place in the wake of Floyd’s death.
