Stocks continued climbing on Monday as markets maintain positive momentum. The S&P 500 gained 0.72% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite overperformed, rising 1.12%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.29%, crossing 53,000 points for the first time ever.
CNBC noted that tech stocks posted broad gains, with the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF seeing solid gains. Dell Technologies saw large gains after President Donald Trump promoted the companies at the White House during an event in which he rang the opening bell.
In contrast, Microsoft dropped more than 1% after the company announcedits laying off more than 2% of its workforce, largely affecting the Xbox division.
Concretely, the company will eliminate 4,800 jobs. Microsoft's chief people officer Amy Coleman said in a message to employees that the "way technology is built, deployed, and used is transforming faster than at any point in my time here."
Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told division employees that the division will cut 3,200 people through fiscal year 2027, two thirds of all the layoffs in the company and about 20% of all employees working in Xbox. 1,600 of them are taking place on Monday.
"I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges," Sharma said in a passage of the message, according to CNBC. "Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day." He said the division will return to growth next year.
Elsewhere, the U.S. services sector continued to expand in June as businesses reported steady customer demand and easing inflation pressures, while ongoing investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure created fresh supply chain bottlenecks for key materials and components.
The latest business surveys showed the nation's largest economic sector remained in growth territory during June, although the two closely watched measures offered different views on hiring. One survey showed employment rebounding after several months of contraction, while another reported staffing levels continued to decline even as new business strengthened.
The Institute for Supply Management's (ISM) Services Purchasing Managers Index slipped to 54 in June from 54.5 in May, remaining well above the 50 mark that signals expansion. At the same time, S&P Global's Services PMI Business Activity Index rose to 51.2 from 50.7, reflecting modest but continued growth in business activity, Axios reported.
The ISM survey found business activity and new orders cooled from May's pace but continued to point to healthy demand. Its employment index climbed to 51.2 from 47.9, returning to expansion for the first time since February and recording its biggest monthly gain since 2024, Bloomberg reported.
S&P Global's survey presented a different picture for the labor market. While new orders recorded their strongest increase since February, employment continued to decline, suggesting companies remained cautious about adding workers despite stronger customer demand, the Axios report said.
