Market Recap: Monday, October 5

Stocks rose Monday, recovering after Friday’s losses as market participants continued to closely monitor developments around President Donald Trump’s health. Shares of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals gained more than 7% intraday, with Trump having received the company’s experimental antibody drug as part of his treatment.

Video Transcript

SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to "The Final Round" here on Yahoo Finance. Well, stocks are rallying to start the week. We are right around session highs. Now, this comes after President Trump's doctors confirmed that he is expected to leave the hospital in just a couple of hours from now. So the improvement in President Trump's condition helping to eliminate at least one element of uncertainty here for investors.

Taking a look at the three major averages as we head into the close. The Dow on track to close at its highest levels since September 4, the S&P up almost 2%, and the NASDAQ the big winner of just around 2.3%.

[BELL RINGING]

That does it for the trading day today. Again, gains across the board. The S&P coming off its first weekly gain in five weeks, and continuing that upward momentum today with the S&P up just around 1.8%, back above 3,400. The Dow closing at its highest level since September 4 at 28,141. As we shake out the final last trades, AmGen, Dow Inc., and Travelers are the big outperformers in the Dow today.

And the NASDAQ, of the three major averages, that was the big outperformer in the markets, up just over 2%. Big tech, communication services here are leading the way for the markets. In addition to the improvement of President Trump's health, we also have investors still appearing to be hopeful that we'll get a stimulus deal, that we are going to get something done over the next couple of weeks.

Now, it's important to note, in today's gains, we are seeing a broad rally sector-wide. You have semis, banks, energies among the winners today. So you can see the cyclical trade as well as growth stocks in favor here amongst investors. I also want to note-- note what's going on in the bond markets. We had the 10-year yield jumping today, as well as the 30-year yield. The 30-year yield hitting its highest level since mid-June.

So I want to bring in my co-host, Myles Udland. He's going to be with us for the next 60 minutes, along with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer. We also have Rick Newman and Akiko Fujita as well as Jared Blikre joining the conversation. And, Myles, a strong start to the week. Dow up just over 450 points, and it seems like investors are really focusing on the fact that we're seeing an improvement in health here for President Trump. And then also, still latching onto the fact that maybe we could see some sort of stimulus deal out of Washington.

MYLES UDLAND: Sure, I mean, and I-- I think, look, the way that the market acted in September, we tried to explain it a number of different ways. We just had a very interesting conversation actually with Tobias Levkovich at Citi, who said that their panic euphoria meter predicted a 100% likelihood of stocks falling to some extent in September. So on that basis, it shouldn't be all that surprising.

But it was, well, are we pricing in the election? Are we pricing out any fiscal stimulus? And-- and I definitely think that the latter point there was a part of what we saw in September, and any stimulus at this point is going to be a bonus for the market. So any optimism on that front, material optimism, which both Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin seem to be projecting, I-- I think would-- would be a positive for the markets.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, it's interesting here, and, Andy, I'd love to get your thoughts just in terms of what's priced in at this point when it comes to some of these risks and some of these uncertainties. Because you see stocks rallying, Dow up 1 and 1/2%, S&P up almost 2%, NASDAQ up well above 2% on a day where you still have President Trump, he is still diagnosed with coronavirus.

He's in the hospital expected to leave in a few hours, and then we also have the outbreak growing in the West Wing. We had president-- White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany also testing positive. So it's interesting that we're seeing such significant gains on a day where there is still so much uncertainty surrounding investors.

ANDY SERWER: Yeah, the White House cluster, no doubt, Seana. And, you know, it's-- it's crazy because, I mean, this is such a partisan call, right, today, I think, because one thing you didn't mention was Biden's uptick in the polls, right? So I got all these people in one ear telling me, like, the market's up today because of that Biden poll showing him, you know, coasting to a comfortable lead. Don't believe that for a minute, but anyway that's the narrative over there.

And then I've got these people over here in this ear telling me that the market's going way up because Trump's doing great and he's about to march right out of that hospital at 6:30 PM. So just, you know, do you have your Democratic phone on or your Republican phone on? Definitely some of that going on. And then never mind, like, you've got the president of the United States basically holding up like, I use remdesivir, and this is a. You know, and so Regeneron is up like, what, 7% today? It's up 40 bucks.

October, we told you, is going to be the craziest month ever, and I think we're off to a rip-roaring start. I mean, leaving aside the Trump tax story, which is actually I think in September, but then the debate coming in, and then, of course, COVID and this White House stuff, never mind the North Carolina Senate race, which is, you know, incredible.

So all this stuff, I think, is just going to make for a wild and crazy month. I think it's going to be a lot of fun for the Akiko Fujitas and the Rick Newmans of the world and Myles and Seana. I think it's going to be signifying nothing, as the board says, as we get to the election because I-- I just don't see a trend happening here at all.