Originally Published on Investopedia.com
Stocks rose Monday with last week's promising inflation data and the anticipation of a big week of earnings reports overshadowing signs of a slowdown in China that could drag on the global economy.
The Nasdaq led the way Monday morning, rising 0.9%. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average also ended the first day of the week in the green, gaining 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.
Solar stocks gained after First Solar (FSLR) announced a 5-gigawatt deal with Israeli renewables company Energix. Shares of Sunrun gained 12%, while S&P 500 constituents First Solar and Enphase Energy (ENPH) gained 8% and 6.6%, respectively.
Telecommunications stocks AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) plummeted after the former was downgraded by analysts at Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, both citing legal risk stemming from a Wall Street Journal report accusing the companies of knowingly laying cable networks containing dangerous amounts of lead.1 AT&T fell 6.7% to its lowest level since 1993, while Verizon was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500, falling 7.5%. Cell tower operators SBA Communications Corp. (SBAC) and Crown Castle Inc. (CCI) fell alongside the service providers.
China's quarter-over-quarter GDP growth slowed to 0.8% in the second quarter from 2.2% in the first three months of the year. Still, GDP is growing at an annualized rate of 6.3%, above Beijing's 5% target set in March.2
This week, earnings season takes off in earnest with reports from Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Tesla (TSLA), Netflix (NFLX), International Business Machines (IBM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and United Airlines (UAL).
